RTB still can’t compel landlords to lower rent if investigators spot illegal hikes

When Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) investigators uncover illegal rent hikes, they can fine the landlords – but the process is complex and lengthy.

And they can’t force landlords to lower rents back down, or to refund the tenant – or themselves tell tenants that their rents have been illegally increased.

RTB Chair Rosemary Steen, in a letter to the Housing Agency in March last year, had flagged all these issues. 

Changes to address them had been slotted into the General Scheme of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2025, approved by government last October.

At an Oireachtas hearing in November, RTB Deputy Director Louise Loughlin appeared to think these changes were on the way, noting that proposed fixed penalties would aid the RTB to act speedily and enforce rent regulations.

“That will give us the power to take action,” she said, under questioning from TDs.

But they were dropped in the final law, now in effect.

The Department of Housing hasn’t responded to a query asking why it hadn’t proceeded with the new process and fixed penalties for breaches of rent setting rules.

Its spokesperson didn’t directly address questions as to why the RTB hasn’t the powers on foot of investigations to force landlords to lower rents, to reimburse tenants, and to tell tenants their rents are in breach. 

When can rents rise?

Under the new Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026, the legality of resetting rents to market rates for new tenancies is dependent on whether or not a previous tenant has left a home voluntarily or was served a no-fault eviction. 

In the case of the former, a landlord can reset rent to market rates between tenancies. In the latter, they can’t. 

Notices that have to be submitted by landlords, to both tenants and the RTB, when reviewing and setting rent, now include a field to explain – if relevant – why the last tenant left. 

“If a landlord is re-setting to market rent, they must also clearly state and explain the grounds on which they are claiming an exemption that allows them to do this,” said a spokesperson for the RTB.

But, what if 

Channels do exist for both tenants and the RTB to pursue and challenge illegal rent hikes. 

Tenants may lodge disputes with the body, in which case adjudicators and tribunal members may order a landlord to lower the rents and repay the difference.

The RTB may also investigate possible breaches itself, including cases it finds by looking at its own data, through its formal sanctions and investigations process. 

But in that case, “currently, the sanction decision cannot compel a landlord to refund or reset the rent, nor can it inform the tenant that their rent is in breach”, said Steen in her letter to the Housing Agency last year.

“This means landlords who do not engage with the investigation process may continue to breach after receiving a sanction,” said Steen. 

Steen, in her letter, said that: “Decisions should be able to compel landlords to change their rent. Otherwise, the only recourse for tenants is to take a dispute case following the investigation to ensure their rent will be set correctly.”

The RTB has a bit of leverage to encourage landlords to lower rent as part of the sanctions process. But not powers to compel.

It takes account of landlords’ responses, including “actions taken to stop the improper conduct”, in setting the sanction amount – which can be up to €15,000 for each breach of rental law, along with costs of up to €15,000.

Ann-Marie O’Reilly, a National Advocacy Manager with the housing charity Threshold, said she wondered whether many landlords understand that the RTB does not have that power through its sanctions process. 

Still, “it would be ideal if they could compel them to do it”, she said.

The RTB also runs less-formal compliance campaigns, based on analyses of its big data sets. In the past, that has meant sending targeted letters to landlords, by the hundreds.

That has yielded rents returned to tenants, when landlords engage. The most recent quarterly report from the RTB shows that in the first nine months of last year, just shy of €136,000 had been returned to tenants in 300 compliance cases.  

The RTB was working at that time on another 3,000 cases of potential non-compliance which it had identified after a review of data, it said, and issued compliance notices to all those landlords.

Will it happen?

Last November, comments by RTB staff during an Oireachtas debate suggested they thought changes in their enforcement powers were on the way.

They had, after all, been included in the General Scheme of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2025.

TDs on the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage grilled RTB staff as to how they would monitor and respond to possible illegal rent hikes, under the complex new rental rules – then on the way, now in effect.

Said the RTB’s Deputy Director Louise Loughlin: “The new powers on fixed penalties that are coming in with this Bill will enable us to take action more speedily where there is a breach of rent regulation.”

“That will give us the power to take action,” she said. Existing investigation and sanction powers mean this takes as long as a year which wasn’t satisfactory, she said. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Housing said that it had recognised the RTB needed more resources for enforcement around the new measures.  

The department is engaging with the body and has allocated €22.8 million for its operational services this year, said a spokesperson. 

That’s “an increase of over 70% on its initial 2025 allocation”, said the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, in response to queries about its powers, a spokesperson for the RTB outlined the existing investigations and sanctions process, and said that the new requirement for landlords to submit more information about rent reviews will further drive its compliance work.

“The RTB has previously welcomed the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s intention to legislate to introduce new financial penalties for breaches of registration and rent setting requirements,” they also said.

“At the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage in November 2025, the RTB has stated that this will enable the RTB to enforce regulatory requirements at a greater scale and pace,” said the spokesperson. 

“The RTB looks forward to the introduction of these additional powers as part of future legislative reforms,” they said.

O’Reilly, of Threshold, says she is sceptical that another round of rental legislation would happen anytime soon when this past round was the big package. “Presumably, the minister is moving on to other things.”