Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Warfield for his amendment and Senator Higgins for her contribution. Amendment No. 26 would require cost rental landlords to give three months’ notice of any rent increase. It may well be that this amendment uses the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act for the private rental sector as a reference. However, this does not take account of the ways in which the cost rental model set out in this Bill is fundamentally different. A tenant in private rental accommodation faces the prospect of a landlord imposing a rent increase any time after 12 months from the previous rent setting. The tenant must wait and see what the landlord will do and cannot predict the level of the rent increase, only knowing that it can be up to 4% if the property is in a rent pressure zone. In contrast, a cost rental tenant will know the exact date on which any rent increase will take effect. It will also be set out in the tenancy agreement, the key terms of which will be prescribed by the Minister in regulations. A higher rent will always have effect on the same date each year, that is, the anniversary of the commencement of the tenancy, so an increase cannot catch anyone by surprise.The tenant also knows that any rent increase will be limited to the change in the published consumer inflation index and that the document notifying the rent increase will give him or her the information necessary to check that the increase is within the allowed limit. Since the Minister is empowered to prescribe in regulations the form that this notification document takes, amendment No. 27 is not necessary. The Minister can already prescribe that this calculation be shown in the rent review notice.

A cost-rental tenant will also know the cut-off point after which a landlord cannot notify him or her of a rent increase for that year. If no notice is received by four weeks after the anniversary date of the tenancy, the tenant can rest secure knowing the rent cannot be increased until the next year. Tenants will go into cost-rental homes with their eyes open, enjoying the benefits of the sector but also prepared for the possibility of a clearly limited level of rent increases, linked to inflation, in accordance with their tenancy agreements.

There are consequences of a three-month notice period. If rent increases are limited to the change in a clearly defined index, what about the change in that index during those three months, which constitute a full quarter of the year? Furthermore, the index information may only be available in arrears. These are the kinds of complexity that are provided for in the Bill as currently structured.

The Bill also provides notice and safeguards for a cost-rental tenant being notified of rent increases. Having been aware all along of the date when a new rent could take effect, a tenant will have at least four weeks' notice before he or she needs to start making monthly rent payments at a higher rate. Moreover, any rent increase will be suspended if a tenant believes the increase is not within the allowed limit and refers the matter to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, for adjudication. A tenant can make such a referral, taking advantage of the RTB's online portal, within four weeks of receiving notice of a rent increase, which is a reasonable period, given that the prospect of a rent increase cannot surprise the tenant.

It is for these reasons that I do not propose to accept the Opposition's amendments.