Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 7 December 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

General Scheme of the Residential Tenancies (Right to Purchase) Bill: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Liam Smyth:

To take a step backwards, what we are looking at is where a notice of termination is served on the basis of sale. This is where this new right would kick in. We were looking at what happens if someone gifts, but in that circumstance, there is no notice of termination issued, so there would be no right to accompany it. While we had thought we needed head 5, we are removing that. If someone is gifting the property, they are gifting with the tenantin situand it would not be a ground to terminate the tenancy. Whether that is between family members or one company setting up another company to gift it in order to find a reason to terminate a tenancy, that is originally why it was there in the Act. You would not have a transfer without a sale and use that as an excuse for getting around a termination.