Ms Sheila McMahon:

The issue is that the description of substantial works relating to the improvement in the building energy rating or BER inserted in section 19 of the 2019 amendment Act were not capable of being applicable to protected structures. They apply to pre-1963 structures but it is just the protected structures within that and this has to do with a technical issue. The BER system emanates from an EU directive and the regulations were made under the 1972 Act. That means the regulations can only be applied as a requirement as opposed to an optional facility. They cannot be used like that. It turned out that the only way protected structures could qualify for the exemption would be either more than 25% of the property was refurbished or they met all three of the exemptions relating to adaptation for disabled people, an increase in the layout and an increase in the number of rooms. Effectively, that would have meant it would have been very difficult for protected structures to quality under the grounds of the change in the substantial refurbishment works. To provide an alternative way in which this subset of buildings in the rental sector could qualify, so that there would not be a deterrent effect on doing needed refurbishment work, this amendment is being introduced whereby if it is a case that there has not been a tenancy in the building for 12 months prior to the new tenancy that commences after the works, there will be an exemption from the application of the 4% rent increase restriction in the rent pressure zones, RPZs. This is an alternative. It will still be two years for every other building.