Summer 2017 dsba.ie Marissa O’Keeffe is an associate solicitor with St John Solicitors. She is a member of the panel of mediators and adjudicators appointed by the RTB and a member of the Property Committee of the DSBA
Landlord and Tenant
Launch of Revised DSBA Residential Tenancies Agreement The DSBA has revised its Residential Tenancies Agreement (2017 edition) as a precedent for the profession. Marissa O’Keeffe reports on its recent launch and what the newly launched Residential Tenancies Agreement contains for landlords and tenants
T
he Property Committee of the DSBA recently launched the Residential Tenancies Agreement (2017 edition) and Notes on Completion of the agreement at a seminar held in the Radisson Hotel on 8th June 2017. The Residential Tenancies Agreement and Notes on Completion are available for purchase on a CD from the DSBA (€195 + VAT). The Notes on Completion of the Residential Tenancies Agreement contain a brief summary of some of the most significant legislative provisions affecting residential tenancies. The seminar was a great success and was well attended. The committee would like to express its gratitude to the valuable contributions given by each of the speakers: namely Eoghan Cole, BL; Kathryn Ward, Assistant Director with the RTB; Seána Glennon of Eversheds Sutherland Solicitors; as well as Ethna Ryan of Partners at Law and Ronan McLoughlin, Chair of Gallagher Shatter for their contributions to the Residential Tenancies Agreement and Notes on Completion. The Residential Tenancies Agreement has been revised since the most recent edition that issued by the DSBA in 2009. The purpose of the current revision was to take account of the changes in the law brought about by the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act, 2015 (“the 2015 Act”); the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act, 2016 (“the 2016 Act”); the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2017 S.I. No. 17 of 2017 (“the 2017 Regulations”) due to come into force from 1 July 2017 as well as changes to the Equal Status Acts 2000-2015. Practitioners’ attention is drawn to the fact that the Law Reform Commission has prepared a consolidated version of the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004–2016 (collectively “the Acts”) available on its website. By way of brief summary, the 2015 Act was enacted on 4 December 2015 and the 2016 Act was enacted on 23 December 2016. The provisions of both of the Acts commenced on a phased basis, some of which have yet to be commenced. The 2015 Act introduced a number of extensive reforms including renaming of the Private Residential
Tenancies Board to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) following the addition of tenancies with approved housing bodies to the remit of the RTB. The 2015 Act introduced rent certainty measures by imposing the extension of the duration between rent reviews from 12 months to 24 months until 3 December 2019 as well as extending the notice period before which a valid rent review can take effect from 28 days to 90 days. When seeking to review a rent, a landlord is obliged to provide three comparable properties as examples to demonstrate market rent in that area. The 2016 Act introduced rent predictability measures in certain areas known as Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs). There are currently 19 areas in total so far which have been designated as RPZs by the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. The frequency within which a tenancy of a dwelling within an RPZ may be reviewed is 12 months as opposed to 24 months. The rent may be increased in an RPZ, but only by a maximum of 4% annually. For new tenancies a landlord is required to provide three pieces of information to a tenant at the commencement of the tenancy: 1. The amount of the rent that was last set under a tenancy for that dwelling; 2. The date that rent was set; and 3. A statement as to how the rent set under the tenancy of the dwelling has been calculated, having regard to the rent pressure zone formula, R x (1 + 0.04 x T/M) • R is the amount of rent last set under a tenancy for the dwelling (the current rent). • T is the number of months between the date the current rent came into effect and the date the new rent amount will come into effect. • M is either 24 (existing tenancies) or 12 (new tenancies). A review is only permitted 24 months after the tenancy came into existence or 24 months from the date the rent was last set. In this instance M = 24. The initial rent review after the 24-month period is subject to a maximum rent increase of 4%. the Parchment 17
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