Rent Review Notice Ireland (Residential Tenancies Act s.22)

Under Irish law a rent review is any procedure that decides whether the rent should go up or down, including a lease clause that adjusts it by formula. The review only binds the tenant once a valid rent review notice has been served. That notice has fixed statutory content, unlike a letter the landlord can phrase freely. It gives the new rent and its start date and explains how the tenant can dispute it. It then states the landlord's opinion that the new rent is not above the market rent, backed by the registered tenancy numbers and rents of three comparable dwellings. Floor area and BER come next, and the notice ends by explaining the rent cap or the exemption relied on.

It is not a new tenancy agreement or a notice of termination, so nothing else in the lease changes. Nor is it the exemption notice used when the first rent of a new tenancy exceeds the cap, which has its own prescribed form. Our Irish residential tenancy documents cover those other stages, from the lease to the end of the tenancy. Cost rental tenancies and the social housing tenancies of approved housing bodies follow their own rent rules, so this notice is the wrong tool for them.

The rules sit in Part 3 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, amended by the Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026 and the Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026. Section 19(1) forbids any rent above the market rent. Section 24 defines that as the rent a willing tenant and a willing landlord would agree, having regard to rent information in the RTB published register for comparable dwellings. Since 1 March 2026 the rent pressure zones have gone and section 19(4) applies nationwide. A new rent may not exceed the old rent by more than 2 per cent a year, pro rata for part of a year, nor by more than the rise in the Consumer Price Index over the same period, whichever is lower. Section 19(4)(aa) keeps only the inflation leg for qualifying new apartment complexes and student-specific accommodation.

Section 22 governs the notice itself. It must be in the prescribed form, signed by the landlord or an authorised agent, and served at least 90 days before the new rent takes effect, with a copy to the RTB within 7 days of service on the tenant. The current form is set out in S.I. No. 470 of 2026, and the statutory text is in the Law Reform Commission's revised version of section 22 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. Section 20 allows one review every 12 months and none in the first year of a tenancy, unless the accommodation has been substantially changed. Exemptions for substantial change are defined in section 19(5A) and notified within one month under section 19(5B). Section 139 then requires the tenancy registration to be updated within one month of the new rent taking effect. A lease or a termination notice is in the Irish legal document library.

Most notices follow the annual review of a private tenancy that has run for more than a year. The landlord checks the RTB calculator, sees that inflation is above 2 per cent, and serves a notice raising the rent by the 2 per cent permitted. After two or three years without a review, that allowance accumulates for each year elapsed, though inflation over the whole period still caps it. Letting agents sign as authorised agent and property companies sign through a director; the company and commercial templates for Irish businesses handle the corporate side, such as board approvals.

Operators of student-specific accommodation use it with the inflation-only cap where the building qualifies. The delicate case is the landlord who has carried out major works, such as a 25 per cent extension or a deep energy retrofit, and wants to reset the rent to market level: the notice is the same, but Part D is completed and the evidence attached. Timing deserves a second look for older tenancies. Where a tenancy already existed when its area became a rent pressure zone in the two years before the review, the first review after that designation may need a 24 month interval under the transitional section 20B. A charity or company limited by guarantee letting a dwelling on an ordinary tenancy serves the same notice, signed by an authorised officer, and keeps its constitution and board papers among the charity and nonprofit templates for Ireland.

Each part of the prescribed form appears in its original order, so an RTB adjudicator recognises the notice at once. It opens with the statutory heading, an addressee line naming every tenant, and the information for tenants on the 90 day notice, the 7 day RTB copy and the dispute deadline. The landlord checklist from the form follows. Part A records the tenancy type, address, Eircode, RT number, start date, floor area, BER and whether the dwelling is in a new development. Part B sets out the current rent, the date of the last review notice, the new rent, its frequency, the effective date and the rent control rule applied.

Below Part B, a short statement explains how the new rent was calculated, as section 22(2A)(f) and (g) require. For a capped increase it describes the 2 per cent or inflation test and gives the maximum from the RTB calculator; for the inflation-only cap it recites the conditions of section 19(4)(aa); and it explains how the current rent was itself set. Part C gives the market rent opinion with three comparable dwellings from the RTB register.

What Part D says depends on your answers. With no exemption it says so, keeping the item numbering intact. With one, it states the reason (extension of at least 25 per cent, energy improvement, or three qualifying works), describes the works and adds the landlord's declaration that they were not done only to meet minimum standards, while Part E lists the documents. Part F carries the declaration of accuracy, the signatory's name and the signature, followed by service instructions and a record of service.

You start with the tenants and the dwelling: names exactly as registered with the RTB, the address, the Eircode and the RT number from the registration acknowledgement. The next screens ask for the tenancy type, start date, floor area and BER, then the current rent and how often it is paid. The form then asks whether the rent has been reviewed before. If it has, you give the date of the last notice; if not, the notice explains that the current rent is the rent first set when the tenancy began. Either way you describe briefly how that rent was calculated.

On the new rent screen you enter the amount, the frequency and the effective date, with a reminder of the 90 day rule. You then choose the rent control rule. The standard cap asks for the maximum given by the RTB calculator, the inflation-only option fills in Item 8 for you, and the exemption option opens a screen for the reason, the works and the documents. After the three comparable dwellings, you say whether you or an agent completes the notice and add the address and date. The preview updates as you type.

The error we see most often with a rent review notice is counting the 90 days from the day it is posted, when the safe practice is to count from the day the tenant receives it. A notice that falls a few days short is not rescued by charging the new rent later: the landlord has to serve a fresh notice. Forgetting the RTB copy, due within 7 days of service on the tenant, is just as fatal, because a notice without its RTB copy does not meet the statutory condition and the new rent has no effect. Comparables taken from property portals instead of the RTB published register no longer satisfy section 22(2A)(d).

Exemptions cause the costliest errors. The works must have been completed since the rent was last set, and a retrofit done only to reach the minimum standards does not count. Knowingly or recklessly giving the RTB false or misleading information about an exemption is an offence under section 19(6B). Landlords who rely on an anniversary clause in the lease sometimes review again before 12 months have passed since the last review, which the Act does not allow. Many also forget to update the RTB registration within one month of the new rent taking effect, a separate duty from serving the notice.