Results 10,821-10,840 of 27,073 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes. The amendment removes renovation or sale as grounds for terminating a tenancy. We have made the argument, and the Anti-Evictions Bill 2018, which seeks to do this, has passed Second Stage in the Dáil notwithstanding the Government's opposition to it. We think that it is unconscionable to allow any evictions in the face of a housing and homelessness emergency where evicting people...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Amendment No. 49 echoes the Anti-Evictions Bill 2018 that has passed Second Stage in the Dáil and requires that where a tenancy is terminated for reasons of a landlord seeking to accommodate a member of his family, he should be required to pay six months' rent to the tenant as compensation for the termination of the tenancy. It is in line with comments I have made that the rental sector...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: This amendment provides for longer notice periods than those proposed by the Government. I will not go through the details but we have to give people as much time as possible because it is nigh on impossible, in many circumstances, for people to find alternative accommodation. Even the Government's improved notice periods, in the current climate, are not adequate. We propose substantially...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Sometimes tenants are unable to pay their rent for genuine reasons and those tenants should have protection if they have legitimate reasons for being unable to pay the rent. I will give the example of people who are currently topping up with HAP payments, of whom there are a lot, and it will become increasingly an issue. It seems to be semi-official policy now, because HAP limits are...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They are complementary.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They cover the same sort of ground where landlords are falsely justifying the termination of a Part 4 tenancy. Amendment No. 170 proposes to hold them accountable for doing that and, similarly, amendment No. 180 is in the same territory and trying to tighten that up to ensure landlords are held fully accountable for any false declarations.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No. 13: In page 6, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 5 of Act of 2004 3. Section 5 of the Act of 2004 is amended in subsection (1): (a) by the substitution of the following definition, for the definition of “landlord”— “ ‘landlord’ means the person for the time being entitled to...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No. 14: In page 6, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 16 of Act of 2004 - to abolish substantial refurbishment or renovation as ground for termination of a tenancy 3. Section 16 of the Act of 2004 is amended in paragraph (a), subparagraph (i) by the insertion of the following after “payment,”: ...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Let us take a concrete example, with which the Minister is familiar.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is in Sandyford which is not in my constituency, although the Minister will remember that I was involved in the issue. I-RES REIT tried to increase the rent by 40%-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It was in the public domain.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I appreciate the protection. The landlord there tried to jack up the rent by an enormous amount. It would have meant the rent increasing from €2,200 to €2,800, which is shocking. The fact that the rent was €2,200 in the first instance is just shocking, and the landlord was going to increase it to €2,800. It was affecting dozens of young people, many of them...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Is that even if a place was not rented for two years previously?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It was not captured by the RPZ provisions.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It was not quite €1,000 so maybe it was 30% - I cannot remember exactly.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will thoroughly examine that to make sure that is the case.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If it does the job, I will accept it.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not think substantial refurbishments justify higher rents because rents are completely out of control at the moment and we should not allow any other mechanisms for rents to be raised over and above where they are. I do not think that doing things to an apartment or other property that need to be done should justify massive rent increases. Rents are not set at affordable levels and the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I get the thinking behind extensions from two to three bedrooms with a genuine and significant expansion of the space but, as I understand the Minister's proposal, modifications to more than 50% of the floor space would be covered.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the Minister for the clarification and it does improve matters so I will consider it again between now and Report Stage. If a property is at the lower end of the BER ratings, a jump by two points would not be very difficult and the box could be ticked relatively easily. It is different at the top levels.