DUBLIN: President Michael D. Higgins signs new bill on rent control. This put an end to fears that landlords would raise rents by up to eight per cent.
The new bill will ensure that rents in Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) can only be increased in accordance with the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP).
The Residential Tenancy (No. 2) Bill 2021 was introduced by Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien in the Dáil last month. The Bill was passed in both the Dáil and the Seanad and has now been signed into law by the Irish president.
Minister O’Brien said: “We are now taking action to ensure that tenants will only pay rent increases if required to, which are in line with general inflation, which is currently below 2%.”
The new bill also restricts the amount of money that tenants can pay in advance. Tenants will no longer have to pay more than one month’s rent in advance.
Previously, landlords had the authority to raise rents in RPZs by 4% every year. Landowners have been unable to employ this 4% power due to restrictions imposed by the government in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
Renters feared that if the temporary ban on evictions and the freeze on rent expired, landlords would impose a rent increase of up to 8%. Some landlords had even issued such notices to their tenants. All of these threats are eliminated with the enactment of the new law.
Minister O’Brien stated that the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) will construct and maintain a new RPZ calculator, as well as publish a table of relevant HICP values, to aid in the lawful setting of rents in these pressure zones.
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