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THE WATCHDOG FOR the rental sector has begun examining recent attempts by major landlord Ires Reit to add an extra €150-200 every month to tenants’ bills by charging them for use of their building’s common areas.
The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) has written to Ires Reit over the practice following reporting in The Journal.
The attempts by the country’s largest private sector landlord to impose the fees has sparked concern, with some advocates and tenants fearing that some renters may sign up to the fees due to concerns over their relatively minor bargaining power.
In a statement to The Journal, the RTB said that it is committed to using its “full powers to investigate and sanction landlords” where they believe any breaches may have taken place.
Ires Reit has been contacted on multiple occasions but has so far declined to comment since The Journal began reporting on the practice at an apartment block near North Circular Road in Dublin.
Angry tenants have queried whether Ires Reit is attempting to evade rent increases outside of Rental Pressure Zone (RPZ) rules. The regulations ban landlords from increasing rent by more than 2% annually.
The landlord – which has up to 3,700 apartments in Dublin alone and recently reported annual revenue of €85 million – would receive up to an extra €2,400 extra across the year per tenant if successful with the charges.
A spokesperson for the RTB said it was treating the reports with “utmost concern” and warned that landlords can face a combined cost of up to €30,000 for each individual breach of the specific rental sector laws.
“As the regulator of Ireland’s rental sector, the Residential Tenancies Board treats all reports of potential non-compliance with rental law and Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) rules with the utmost concern,” the RTB spokesperson said.
“Following recent media reports on the potential introduction of common area fees in an apartment block in Dublin, the RTB has written to the landlord in question to remind them of their obligations under rental law, and to request additional information on this case.”
The spokesperson added: “The RTB is committed to using our full powers to investigate and sanction landlords where we believe there has been a breach of rental law. This can result in a sanction of up to €15,000 and €15,000 in costs for each individual breach.
“Tenants also have a right to bring a dispute against their landlord where they believe they have failed to follow RPZ rules. This can result in a landlord paying up to €20,000 in damages, in addition to returning any overpaid rent to the tenant.”
It is not known how widespread the practice is, although The Journal has been informed of the attempted charges for common areas being attempted in another Ires Reit building.
To date, the landlord has declined to comment on whether it has sought to implement the charge at any properties aside from The School Yard.
However, Ires Reit did try and impose the fees on one tenant of The School Yard last year, only for the landlord to later back down during mediation after the renter challenged it at the RTB.
Two months after agreeing to drop pursuit of this tenant, it began trying to impose it on people living at the same building.
Rental sector sources have said a similar practice was seen in recent years where attempts were made to impose fresh charges on tenants’ leases by charging them for carparking.
In some cases, landlords can justify the practice if they can provide receipts for what the fresh charges pay for – such as in the case of bin charges.
The practice has seen it receive criticism from renters and politicians from Sinn Féin, Labour and the Green Party.
Among those criticising Ires Reit were Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin, who said earlier this week that he had contacted the chief executive of the RTB to commence an investigation.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe – who is a TD for Dublin Central, where Ires Reit’s School Yard apartments are located – told reporters earlier this week that he was aware of the issue and said the government wanted to balance an examination of Rental Pressure Zones while “protecting the rights and needs of tenants”.
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This country is so out of control. And that is very worrying.Fffg is a great bunch of politicians pooled together for their own interests. Mad ted..
@Paul Gorry: I think these charges are a wonderful revenue generator, if renters aren’t happy they can go live under a bridge lol
@Billy Meehan: Oh, wait, a bridge tax incoming, lol.
@Paul Gorry: anything that annoys you can only be a good thing
@Paul Gorry: Very simple solution don’t want to pay it don’t use it.
@Billy Meehan: No prizes for guessing who you voted for
@Rian O’Sullivan: don’t pay it . Use it!
How can a landlord monitor who uses a common area? That becomes a different issue.
It’s pure greed, what an absolute disgrace. Owning that many properties and making huge profits already, yet they want to squeeze their poor tenants for more. It has to stop, rents are crazy enough as it is.
@S banter: you do know the purpose of a business is to make as much as possible for the wonderful owners
@Billy Meehan: yes. But being a slithering snake to screw over hard working people and families when they’re already well in profit is simply shameful and sickening. No company should be allowed to own so many rental properties in this country.
@S banter: were you always a communist? Perhaps you should move to that Kip China lol
@S banter: Yes they should grow up kid you will learn about economics in the later years of education.
Ires Reit is the one who should be charged
@RIP: awesome company
@Billy Meehan: Lawless you mean!
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: amazing company and I hope they make a fortune :)
They’re just testing what they can get away with and under what grounds they’re told no. If this is made into a simple RPZ issue the whole thing will be moot if the government goes ahead with plans to scrap RPZs. Within a week, extra charges for common spaces will become the norm.
And the government really believes the private sector is the answer to the housing crisis?
This interference by the RTB is unacceptable and it should have been abolished a long time ago. The reason that landlords have to add these extra fees is precisely because of rent control. Just because a law says “you can only raise rent by 2%”, that doesn’t suddenly mean that the cost of owning, maintaining or building housing stays the same. If property taxes, maintenance costs, compliance costs and mortgage rates go up by more than 2%, landlords will find other ways to pass on those costs, like increasing move-in costs, reducing maintenance, requiring higher security deposits and cutting back on the number of services offered. Rent control ignores the laws of supply and demand. Dublin’s rental market is collapsing because the government killed housing supply while demand is exploding.
@William Jennings: it’s disgraceful, private landlords should be able to charge what they want
@William Jennings: what confuses me is if you compare Dublin with Stockholm, rent per M2 in Stockholm is 25% cheaper, yet the cost of buying in Stockholm is almost 50% dearer, how do Swedish landlords make any money and why have they all not left the market. It seems Irish landlords want their properties paid off over a very short time, ie they never seem to factor in the massive property capital appreciation when they talk about the profit they make, only rental rental yields.
@William Jennings: Plenty of Landlords in Dublin, no shortage of rentals if you are willing to pay a lot of money. Most don’t even register their properties with the RTB or Revenue, but their day will come when Revenue sends them their tax bill.
@Eddie Garvey: not many people rent in Sweden because they offer 100 year mortgage so it’s easier and cheaper to buy.
@tony hilton: 35% rent in Sweden, that’s more than in Ireland
@Eddie Garvey: my point is , you can buy if you want with even a small income. You don’t get that choice in ireland
@tony hilton: Fair point, but it’s a double whammy here because landlords charge massive rents making it harder for would be buyers to save and those who just want to rent to do so into their retirement. How come landlords in Stockholm (could be Alicante etc) charge less rent even though property is dearer.
@William Jennings: you must be a landlord or work for one.
For anyone who thinks the government should remove the rent cap here is an example of what vulture funds will do with the cap – imagine how much they’ll increase the rent if the cap is lifted
If you are looking for governmental help then you come to realise everything is capped to a certain amount. Yet any foreign company providing a service here can command extortionate prices if they do so wish to. I realise it’s to do with availability and demand but why this government is not working more for its citizens is a true mystery. On top of that, more housing, more citizens stay, start families, increase of local population without the need to import them. Return of thousands who left…… It is just being run more into the ground day by day….
The solution is straightforward: tax the Reits.
The small landlord is text to the hilt at 60% yet institutional so-called professional landlords are virtually tax-free. And the worthless ministers for housing ran the small landlords out of the market at a time when small landlords were needed most.
They reckon this shower have about 1.8 billion of housing stock here. All of these properties should be CPO’d by government and send these tyrants packing back to where they came from. Almost 4000 dwellings into public ownership in the blink of an eye. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. But out spineless gov could never imagine doing such a thing.
The government seems more concerned with foreign students than indigenous Irish. There are student apartment blocks all around the city centre. India has a population of 1.4 billion, yet they can’t educate their own. We have to put “political correctness” and “the thought police” aside, and concentrate on logic and moderation.
@Shane Gallagher: your mistaken if you think teaching fgn students is pc or woke. It’s all about massive profit.
“RTB writes to…” Try, “initiates court proceedings against…”. Farcical.
The residents dont know how lucky the are that the landlord supplies free air to the property
Window dressing
Our many governments have led by example with made up charges and taxes just to steal money out of your pocket. so if it’s good for them then others will think it’s acceptable practice also.
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