Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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547. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to provide assurances to tenants of voluntary housing agencies that the new legislation placing these agencies under the remit of the Private Residential Tenancies Board from 2016 will make no material change to their tenancy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41608/15]

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Approved housing bodies, or AHBs, are at the heart of the Government’s vision for housing provision and they play a pivotal role in the supply of social housing. It is imperative that the sector is properly regulated in all areas of its work and that includes their landlord-tenant relationships.The current law for AHB tenancies is based on a combination of tenancy agreements, the common law, and landlord and tenant legislation dating as far back as the nineteenth century. As such, there is a need for a modern legislative basis for AHB tenancies. The application of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to AHBs will achieve this objective. It will provide real security of tenure to AHB tenants; it will clearly set out the rights and obligations of both AHB landlords and tenants; and, significantly, it will provide access to a comprehensive and independent dispute resolution service.

The rights and obligations for landlords and tenants that are laid out in sections 12 and 16 of the Residential Tenancies Act are appropriate for the not-for-profit sector and in many cases mirror the provisions of leases offered by AHB landlords. Having a common set of rights and obligations provided in statute will benefit the sector as a whole. The Residential Tenancies Act does not prevent landlords giving rights or imposing obligationsin addition to those provided for in sections 12 and 16, as long as these are consistent with the Act.

While the practice is for AHB tenants to occupy their dwellings on a long-term basis, the majority of AHB tenancies are in fact periodic tenancies. The Residential Tenancies Act will give most AHB tenants greater rights than they currently have by giving them the right to a four year tenancy under Part 4 of the Act. The entitlement to a four year tenancy is a minimum entitlement for tenants after 6 months. This does not prevent landlords providing for longer fixed-term tenancies should they wish to do so and there is nothing in the Act to prevent a landlord providing a tenant with more beneficial rights generally than those that are provided for in the Act.

The Residential Tenancies Act provides a base level of protection for tenants. When AHB tenancies come within the remit of the Act, AHB tenants will not lose any advantages they might have over private rented tenants; rather, they will benefit from the additional legal protection provided by the Residential Tenancies Act.