Eoin Ó'Broin tells Emmett Oliver of his reservations about the changes to be made to the RTB new rent rules
New rules are coming into effect for people beginning to rent for the first time. While the Government says it will provide “greater certainty and stability”, not everyone is convinced that will happen.
Joining Emmet Oliver to discuss is Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Mid-West & party spokesperson for Housing, Eoin Ó'Broin.
The State's Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) is set to roll out an information campaign informing tenants and landlords about new rent rules.The rules are set to come into effect tomorrow Sunday, 1 March.
The change will see landlords being required to submit notices to both tenants and RTB, while previously notices had only been sent to the tenant when the rent changed.
A rent register will be published and show how much people are paying for accommodation across the country.
Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Mid-West & party spokesperson for Housing, Eoin Ó'Broin told Newstalk Saturday that “the idea that you should give different groups of renters different sets of rights is utterly perplexing.”
Red house on top of a pile of 50 euro bank notes cash.“Not only is it unfair, but it'll be very, very difficult to communicate, even harder to understand and impossible to enforce.
“So renters' rights will be completely different if you remain in an existing property, if you start renting in the property of a small landlord, start renting in the property of a large landlord or of your student renter. That is not the way.”
He said the changes would not benefit the majority of renters as it’s never been more expensive and less secure to be a renter.
“Simon Coveney's rent pressure zone legislation was really badly designed”, he told Newstalk Saturday’s Emmett Oliver.
“We warned him at the time on the floor of the Dáil and I was there and voted against the RPZs because it is a bad form of rent regulation.
“Rents have now increased by, in some cases, by 100 percent and more tenants are getting eviction notices by the quarter. The most recent data from the Residential Tenancies Board shows a 34 percent increase in eviction notices in the previous year.”
He outlined how the Sinn Fein alternative housing plan published last September set out how to dramatically increase the supply of social, affordable and private homes for purchasing homes.
“A third of the people living in the private rental sector should be in social housing,” he told Newstalk.
“They're trapped in a private rental sector, subsidized through a half-browser rent supplement.
We have 88,000 people over the age of 55 in a private rental sector facing a cliff edge when they hit pension age.
It's increase and accelerates the delivery of social, affordable rental, affordable purchase and private for purchase homes.”
Main Image: Sinn Fein’s Eoin O Broin. Picture by: PA Wire.
