SOME 16,000 properties have been identified as “tenancies of concern” – after some landlords hiked rent prices higher than the legal max.
A major crackdown on illegal rent surges could see landlords heavily fined.
Thousands of renters in Rent Pressure Zones have seen their rents surge over the 2 per cent annual cap.
A media campaign was launched in October last year to inform landlords of rent caps.
RTB officials said: “We wrote to this group of landlords to advise that we have identified a rent increase of concern for their tenancies.
“Landlords were asked to check and correct their rent, and to return any overpaid rent to tenants if necessary.
“We also created new educational resources to support landlords.
“These included a new webinar on calculating rent correctly in an RPZ.
“This was shared by email with all landlords associated with the 16,000 tenancies of concern.
“We also ran national and local radio ads to remind landlords of their obligations.”
The second phase of the campaign will focus on investigating breaches by landlords.
Those in breach may get a written caution and/or a sanction of up to €15,000 and up to €15,000 in costs.
Other breaches include failing to register a property, failure to update the register when required to do so, failing to offer a tenancy back to a tenant when required to do so, knowingly giving a false or misleading reason for ending a tenancy in a Notice of Termination or seeking a greater amount in deposit or an advance payment than is allowed.
Illegal retention of tenants’ deposits is another common dispute reported by renters to the RTB, according to Threshold.
The board received almost 4,000 Dispute Resolution Applications in relation to deposit retention, from 2021 to 2023.
People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy suggested a new bill in the Dail that, if enacted, would protect tenants from illegal retention of their deposits by landlords.
Mr Murphy said: “My Bill simply enacts legislation passed by the Government in 2015 but never enacted to establish a Deposit Protection Scheme under the auspices of the RTB.
“This would prevent landlords getting and subsequently illegally retaining deposits.
“In many other countries, including in the North, England, Wales, Scotland, New Zealand and Australia, third party deposit protection schemes are already in place
“This is a bare minimum measure to give some basic protection to tenants.
“A deposit is often the only form of savings tenants have and the only thing standing between them and homelessness.”
