asked the Minister for Justice if a landlord who receives repair grants from the State and the local authority for the repair of a house in which there is a tenant is entitled by law to increase the rent of such house under the provisions of the Rent Restrictions Act, 1960, whereby the landlord is entitled to 15 per cent. increase by way of rent on the first £100 expanded in excess of two-thirds of the basic rent and 8 per cent. on the next £100 or part thereof; and, if so, if he will consider having the law amended to prevent such happening.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Repair of Houses: Rent Increases.
33.
Under Section 10 of the Rent Restrictions Act, 1960, a landlord who incurs expenditure in excess of two-thirds of the basic rent on putting a dwelling into a reasonable state of repair is entitled to increase the rent by a percentage of that excess of expenditure. Subsection (8) of that section provides, however, that the amount of any repair grants he receives shall not be reckoned as part of his expenditure on the repairs.
In effect, therefore, the landlord can only increase the rent by the prescribed percentage of the amount of the excess expenditure which he has had to bear himself. I do not think that any amendment of these provisions would be justified.