Bill enhances powers to police rogue landlords

MINISTERS will today decide on a new law to enhance the policing powers of the Residential Tenancies Board against private landlords.

Skeleton legislation from Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy would confer a new power on the board to proactively investigate any rogue practices, instead of waiting for a complaint first from tenants, many of whom are terrified of losing their accommodation.

The draft Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill going before Cabinet today follows Minister Murphy’s commitment to reform and modernisation of the rental sector.

The Bill will make it a criminal offence for landlords to implement rent increases that contravene the law around Rent Protection Zone limits of 4% a year.

It will also provide new powers to the RTB to investigate and prosecute landlords who implement such increases against the rules.

A major innovation, long called for by housing activists, involves allowing the RTB to initiate an investigation without the need for a complaint to be made.

The Bill, which will go for drafting before the summer and be introduced to the Dáil in the autumn, would also usher in real rent transparency, the Minister’s spokesman said. It is understood it will do this by allowing the RTB to publish rents charged on its online register, similar to the web display of prices achieved in private sales via the property register.

The RTB already gathers such data, but is precluded from sharing it with the very people to whom it would be most useful – people in search of rental opportunities.

A change would allow renters to assess prevailing rent levels in a particular area, as well as the previous rent paid.

Minister Murphy’s Bill will also extend the minimum notice periods that landlords must give to tenants.