OVER 5,700 NOTICES to quit were issued to tenants from landlords in the second quarter of 2023, new data from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) shows. 

In the second quarter of the year, 5,735 notices to quit were issued to tenants. This compares to 4,753 notices issued in the first quarter of the year. 

In the second quarter, 63% of landlords (3,633) who issued the notices said they were intending to sell the rental property, the RTB data shows. 

In July 2022, new legislation came into effect that requires landlords to send a copy of all notices of termination to the RTB on the same day it is served on the tenant. The notice is not valid if this requirement isn’t met. 

Reacting to the RTB’s figures, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin called on the Government to immediately reintroduce the ban on no-fault evictions. 

The eviction ban to prevent tenants from being evicted during the winter if their landlords wanted to sell the property or have relatives move in was lifted in March.

Tenants who stopped paying rent could still be evicted as this did not qualify as a no-fault eviction.

“RTB figures released today show a dramatic increase in eviction notices issued by landlords between April and June of this year,” Ó Broin said. 

“Government must immediately reintroduce the ban on no fault evictions until such time as the numbers of people in emergency accommodation starts to fall,” he said. 

“The need to deliver an additional quantum of social and affordable housing specifically for those in emergency accommodation utilising emergency planning powers and new building technologies. And they must ramp up the social and cost rental tenant-in-situ schemes,” he added. 

“The government was wrong to end the ban on no-fault evictions.”

Government response

When the government defied calls from the opposition to extend the eviction ban past March, it announced several measures aimed at improving tenants security of tenure including schemes allowing local authorities to buy a home from a landlord and rent it to the tenant.

The First Right of Refusal was also announced, which would oblige landlords selling a property to offer to sell it to their tenant before placing it on the market.

However, the legislation to allow this measure will be delayed until after the Dáil’s summer recess.

Senior government figures including Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien justified not extending the ban beyond March by stating that it did not help to actually reduce the number of people becoming homeless.

This has been disputed by homelessness charities such as Threshold, while a FactFind by The Journal found that although homelessness continued to increase during the ban, it happened at a slower rate compared to the months before the ban.

With reporting by Jamie McCarron