Tenant Protections in Place Amidst COVID-19 Crisis

In recent days amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has approved a series of emergency measures introduced by housing Minister Eoghan Murphy in order to offer protection and safeguards for tenants.

Minister Murphy has been liaising with housing bodies and NGOs in order to adopt measures for renters who are struggling and whose incomes have been affected by the crisis.

Temporary Ban on Evictions and Increase in Notice Periods

A ban on evictions has been introduced and will be implemented for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, due to the increased pressure to meet rental payments, there is now a moratorium on notices to terminate a tenancy.

In this circumstance, where a tenant has received a notice request to leave their rented accommodation that process will now be suspended. The notice period for rental tenancies of less than six months will also be increased from 28 days to 90 days.

Support for Tenants Following Flexibility Afforded to Landlords

The emergency rental measures follow on foot of recent announcements from banks that they will offer flexibility to landlords, such as a three month break in mortgage repayments, which will be afforded to those with buy-to-let mortgages whose tenants have been impacted by the current crisis.  In the circumstance, landlords who avail of this flexibility are encouraged to pass it onto tenants facing difficulties and should not use it to evict tenants.

Tenants will still be expected to pay rent during this period, however in cases where individuals are struggling to due so they are encouraged to get in contact with their Landlord as soon as possible to try come to alternate arrangements for this period, or to get in contact with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection in order to apply for income supports and Rent Supplement which is being made available to those struggling.

Prohibition on Rent Increases

Further support for tenants struggling with meeting their obligations because of a fall in income is also being implemented by the Government, who have introduced a moratorium on rent increases.  However, discussions in relation to rent freeze and rent pressure zones have been halted due to legal constraints in place, which will require emergency legislation to be adopted in order to intervene in the contract between landlords and tenants.

Implementation of New Measures

Many of the new measures being introduced will require legislative footing in order to be enforced to safeguard tenants at this time and to ensure that tenants are not served with tenancy termination notices during the crisis or being asked to meet rental increases.

In order to enforce these measures, it is expected that the Government will publish legislation to amend the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 – 2019 when the Dáil returns next Thursday, 26 March 2020, to give affect to these changes.  This may see further protections such as rent deferral by tenants being put in place where tenants are under severe financial stress due to loss of income.

Crucially however, these measures are said to be temporary in nature and will only last for the duration of the public health crisis after which the situation will revert to current legislative provisions.  It is stated that the temporary nature of the measures being put in place offset concerns surrounding the unconstitutional nature of measures such as an outright ban on evictions, which dramatically infringe on a person’s private property rights.

How we can help

If you have any queries or concerns, or would like to discuss the above in further detail, please feel free to contact Siobhán Whelan in our Real Estate Department on swhelan@bhsm.ie / +353 (0)1 440 8339.

This article is for general information purposes.  Legal advice must be obtained for individual circumstances.  Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this article, no liability is accepted by the author for any inaccuracies.