Seanad debates

Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed)

 

10:30 am

Photo of Malcolm NoonanMalcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This amendment, if passed, will insert a new section 6 into the Bill to provide for consequential amendments to the Residential Tenancies Acts to reflect the provisions of section 5 of the Bill, as now amended. The proposed new section 6(1)(a) inserts a substitute section 29 of the principal Act to define a Part 4 tenancy. For the purposes of the Residential Tenancies Acts, each of the following will be considered a Part 4 tenancy: where a person has been in occupation of a dwelling under a tenancy for a continuous period of six months and no notice of termination giving the required period of notice has been served in respect of the tenancy before the expiry of the period of six months; a tenancy that continues in existence where the landlord has consented under the amended section 5(3) of the Bill to the tenancy continuing for an unlimited duration; and a new tenancy of unlimited duration that continues in existence under the amended section 5(4) of the Bill in direct succession to a Part 4 tenancy or further Part 4 tenancy in existence before the commencement of section 5 and due to expire thereafter, and in respect of which no valid notice of termination has been served in line with paragraph (a), dealing with grounds for termination by a landlord, or paragraph (b), dealing with the termination of a Part 4 tenancy or a further Part 4 tenancy, or section 34 or section 36, which relates to termination by the tenant.

The proposed new section 6(1)(b) inserts a new subsection (1) into section 30, relating to terms of a Part 4 tenancy, of the principal Act. This amendment, if passed, will provide that the terms of a Part 4 tenancy shall, where a person has been in occupation of a dwelling under a tenancy for a continuous period of six months and no notice of termination giving the required period of notice has been served in respect of the tenancy before the expiry of the period of six months, be those of the tenancy of which it is a continuation. The amendment further provides that the terms of a Part 4 tenancy shall, where a tenancy that continues in existence where the landlord has consented, under the amended section 5(3) of this Bill, to the tenancy continuing for an unlimited duration, be those of the tenancy of which it is a continuation and, in the case of a new tenancy of unlimited duration that continues in existence under the amended section 5(4) of this Bill in direct succession to an existing Part 4 tenancy or further Part 4 tenancy, and where no valid notice of termination has been served, be those of the tenancy of that dwelling immediately preceding the new tenancy.

The proposed new section 6(1)(c) provides for the existing amendment to section 64B of the principal Act, as provided for in section 6 of the published Bill. Section 64B of the principal Act is amended to provide that the duration of tenancy under any tenancy of unlimited duration and under any preceding Part 4 tenancy and-or further Part 4 tenancy would be treated as one tenancy in calculating any termination notice period to be given to a tenant.

The proposed new section 6(2) provides that section 6 will come into operation on the same day as section 5 of the Bill, which will commence on the day that falls six months after the passing of the Bill.

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