Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 April 2012
872 Deputy Eric Byrne asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will concede to a request that all landlords who have sitting tenants in excess of two to three years who lose their employment and end up being rent subsidised should be automatically entitled to a continuation of tenancy as a rent subsidised tenant. [18746/12]
View answer873 Deputy Eric Byrne asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the large scale discrimination against tenants, who, through no fault of their own, end up unemployed and who are then eligible for a rent subsidy and who find themselves victims of landlords refusing to accept them as continuing tenants as a rent subsidised tenant; if the necessary legislative changes will be made to ensure that this discrimination ceases as a matter of urgency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18747/12]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 872 and 873 together.
The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 regulates the tenant-landlord relationship in the private rented residential sector. The Act sets out the law relating to the rights and obligations of tenants and landlords in the sector covering, inter alia, security of tenure and the termination of tenancies. Under the Act a tenancy includes any periodic or fixed term tenancy whether oral, written or implied and a tenancy agreement includes an oral tenancy agreement.
The maximum duration of a tenancy under the Act is four years, after which a new tenancy must be registered with the Board. Where a tenant has been in occupation of a dwelling for a continuous period of 6 months, and no notice of termination has been served in respect of the tenancy before the expiry of the period of 6 months, the tenancy continues in being for the remainder of the four year period and this is referred to in the Act as a Part 4 tenancy. A landlord may not serve a notice of termination on such a tenant except in very clearly defined circumstances such as a failure by the tenant to comply with his or her obligations in relation to the tenancy, where the landlord intends to sell the property within 3 months after the termination of the tenancy or where the landlord requires the dwelling for his or her own occupation or for that of a family member.
The employment status of a tenant has no impact on the tenant's legal rights to remain in the tenancy for the remainder of the Part 4 tenancy and any changes in that status cannot be used by a landlord as grounds for termination of a Part 4 tenancy.
