“We don’t appear to have any regulations to cover people in that situation,” says Camille Loftus, head of advocacy for Age Action.
Charities representing renters and older people have called on the government to clarify that residents of retirement villages are tenants under the law.
Those renters should have access to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), they say.
Camille Loftus, head of advocacy for Age Action, says that there appears to be a gap in regulation for people living in retirement villages, which are privately owned rented developments for older people.
When disputes come before it, members of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) often find that it doesn’t have jurisdiction, she says.
Instead, they find that they are licencees – which means that they have fewer rights, no recourse to the RTB to adjudicate on disputes, and can be subject to frequent rent increases.
“We don’t appear to have any regulations to cover people in that situation,” says Loftus. She contrasts this with retirement villages in Australia, which are common and well regulated, she says.
How RTB adjudicators and tribunal members have addressed the issue of jurisdiction in cases with renters in retirement villages is – as in cases with shared houses – varied and arguably inconsistent.
The RTB accepted jurisdiction in two cases that renters brought against different nursing homes in Limerick in 2021 and 2022. But in 2023 in a case in Wexford, the RTB found that seven renters were licencees not tenants.
In the Wexford case, the renters had turned to the RTB after multiple rent hikes – with one renter arguing that the landlord, an investment fund, had hiked the rent three times in 18 months.
“All rentals are precarious for people on fixed incomes, including retirement villages,” says Frank Dillon, communications manager with Alone.
“I think if someone is paying rent they should be entitled to the protection of the Residential Tenancies Board,” he said.
Retirement villages, also called retirement communities, are usually privately owned developments where residents rent individual homes with some communal services or facilities, says Gareth Redmond, research and policy officer with Threshold.
Redmond is currently researching the distinctions between tenants and licencees, he says. It would be better if that distinction was clearly defined in the legislation, he says.
The Residential Tenancies Act doesn’t mention these types of developments specifically, he says. “My understanding is that it is basically a grey area.”
RTB adjudicators and tribunal members have issued different decisions in different cases as to whether renters in retirement villages are tenants or licencees.
In May 2021, Maria Burns won a case against her landlord, Ballycorney Retirement Limited, in Limerick for breach of landlord obligations by not carrying out necessary repairs. Burns was awarded €3,500, according to a determination order.
Tribunal members also accepted jurisdiction in a case brought by a renter Kevin Ryan against Castletroy Retirement Village (Operations) Ltd, which is owned by Seamus Madden.
In Limerick in October 2022, the RTB also accepted jurisdiction in a case brought by a renter Professor Kevin Ryan against Castletroy Retirement Village (Operations) Ltd, which is owned by Seamus Madden.
The owner didn’t dispute that the rental agreement was a tenancy in that case.
But in November 2023 in Wexford, seven renters living in a retirement village took cases against the owners, a company which is owned ultimately by an investment fund.
Joriding Ltd trading as Middletown House Nursing Home and Retirement Village, is a company which is owned by Arbour Care Nursing Homes Ltd, which is owned by JWP ICAV.
The RTB found the renters were not tenants and so it had no jurisdiction.
One of the renters, Helen Cooney, appealed the decision to the RTB, and the case – as with all licence-versus-tenancy disputes – hung on whether she had “exclusive possession” of the dwelling.
According to the tribunal report one of the issues Cooney raised was that the owner had upped the rent three times in 18 months, which is not permitted under the Residential Tenancies Act.
Kevin Ryan appeared for Cooney, having successfully advocated for himself previously in the case against Castletroy Retirement Village in Limerick.
Barrister Neal Flynn, on behalf of the landlord, argued that the rental agreement was a licence agreement not a tenancy.
The full rent was €370 per week, according to the tribunal report. The rent included services, Flynn said, which he listed, and staff had access to the property, so they could check on people and intervene in an emergency.
A staff member for the landlord said that the staff have a master key and can enter renters’ homes when necessary. She said they sometimes enter the home at the same time they knock, instead of waiting.
Loftus of Age Action says that situation sounds like one that would need to be regulated.
The retirement villages appear to have staff who can access people’s homes but the settings are totally unregulated. “They are falling into a gap between medical services and housing services,” says Loftus.
At the RTB tribunal hearing, Flynn, the barrister, argued, among other things, that Cooney had medical issues and had presented a letter from her doctor in order to access the retirement village.
In the end, the RTB found that it had no jurisdiction in the case, in part because of the services provided rolled in together with the rent.
“It is clear from the facts of this case that the ‘rent’ being paid by Ms Cooney is not arising solely out of the holding of the land or the rental and use of the property she lives in but all of the many and significant ancillary services being provided to her by the Respondent,” says the report.
The tribunal report also says that the owners had the right to end the rental arrangement if the resident was no longer capable of independent living. That deal wouldn’t be in line with a residential tenancy, where the landlord would need a reason to evict a tenant, they said.
If retirement villages are not constrained by rent caps then people on fixed incomes will struggle to keep up with rent increases, says Loftus. Loftus says it’s scary that there appears to be no regulator for retirement villages.
Age Action is calling for a national strategy on positive ageing and older people.
“We are living longer and having smaller families, and more and more people are going to reach old age without someone to look out for them,” she says.
The solution is for the state to develop small accessible homes for people in their community so they don’t have to move away from the people they know, she says.
Most people on pensions cannot afford to pay rent increases in the private sector, she says. “People want to stay in their own community.”
The private rental sector is no place for older people, says Dillon of Alone, and that includes privately owned retirement villages.
Homeownership rates are plummeting, so it looks as if many more people in Ireland are going to end up renting, he says. “But how do you pay rent in older age?”
There is a cliff edge for many renters when they hit 65 and their income drops, he says. “There is no sign of rents coming down.”
Alone is calling on the government to build thousands of new social homes specifically for older people, he says.
No decision has been made on whether that will happen, a Dublin City Council spokesperson has said. But it hasn’t been ruled out.
The landlord argued that the renters in the Rathmines building were hotel guests and that they didn’t have exclusive occupation.
The doors of the two-storey blocks at St Anne's Court are now boarded over. All doors, that is, but three.
