Landlords, Be Aware!

Late-stage amendments to the Regulation of Providers of Building Works and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022 (Act) have been signed into law by the President with effect from 6 July 2022. These changes provide for, amongst other things, the extension of termination notice periods required to be given to residential tenants.

Longer notice periods

Under the Act, the notice periods that landlords must give to tenants in no-breach terminations will be approximately two months longer for residential tenancies of less than three years’ duration. No changes were made to notice periods for tenancies longer than three years. The old and new notice periods are set out in the table below. For completeness, we have included all the notice periods for no-breach terminations.

Requirement to serve a copy of the notice of termination on the RTB

In addition to the extended notice periods, the amendments introduced by the Act require landlords to serve a copy of any notice of termination (NOT) on the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) on the same day that the NOT is served on the tenant. This is the case regardless of the grounds of termination. If a landlord fails to serve a copy of the NOT on the RTB on the same date, the NOT will be invalid.

Upon receipt of a NOT, the RTB will then:

• • Notify the tenant of the timeframe for the referral of a dispute as to the validity of the NOT. The timeframe under the Act has been increased from 28 to 90 days in the case of a no-breach termination.
  • Write to the relevant landlord and tenant with information on their rights and obligations under the residential tenancies legislation, as well as with details of the RTB’s dispute resolution service, and
  • Seek to ascertain the tenant’s contact details. The RTB will then pass those details onto the landlord, with the tenant's consent, if requested by the landlord, for the purpose of making a re-let offer in cases of terminations grounded in certain circumstances. Those grounds include a landlord’s intention to sell, occupation by the landlord or a family member, substantial refurbishment or change in the use of the rented dwelling. It should be noted that, following the amendments, the former tenant will now have a maximum period of 7 days within which to accept the re-letting offer.

Announcing these amendments, Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien stated that these measures were being taken to make renting more secure. He went on to state that ‘[t]he extension of these notice periods will give those in tenancies under three years greater security of tenure. It will give them more time to find alternative accommodation if they are required to.’

Conclusion

These new provisions came into force on 6 July 2022. Landlords should familiarise themselves now with the changes and ensure that any notices of termination served after the commencement of the measures comply with the new requirements.

For more information, contact a member of our Real Estate team.

The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other advice.