Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is not about "renovictions". We should be clear on that. This is about using the excuse of renovation to get around rent controls. It happens in circumstances where it should not. People make bogus claims about renovation, or the supposed renovation is not renovation but a lick of paint. That has to stop and with this legislation it will stop. Verification will come through the documentation supplied by the RTB, which is expert in this area and will be able to get a good handle on what is adequate documentation and what is not. It is not easy to fake BER rating improvements or step around them.

People are using that excuse, for example, or a change to the size of the floor space, or any of the other reasons or clauses for those who are making a significant investment to be able to increase the rent above 4%. That is a serious offence. The RTB is now getting new powers under this legislation to investigate landlords in a thorough way who step out of line. A new sanctioning regime has been introduced in the legislation. It has both new criminal offences and a new administrative sanctioning regime. It will be up to the RTB, whose staff are the experts in this area, to decide whether it needs to carry out an inspection based on the documentation it receives. We are giving a lot of new powers to the RTB. We are giving it new resources as well. It is important not to overburden it at this time and to allow it to build up the new resources and to start to use its new powers to explore whether it needs further powers in a given area or if its powers need to be better clarified in legislation. I have no doubt that in future Bills we might need to tighten up certain measures or to look again at other issues but for the time being, it will be the judgment call of the RTB as to whether an inspection is necessary. It would be an undue burden on the RTB to make inspections mandatory in cases where the documentation is more than clear as to what is happening.

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