Is your landlord giving you the boot?

Notice and eviction rights.

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Written by SpunOut | Last updated November 20^th, 2014

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It’s cool to have a place of your own, but sometimes dealing with a landlord can be very stressful. You may feel especially vulnerable if you do not know your legal rights.

In particular, what do you do if the landlord suddenly announces that they want you and your flatmates/partner/family to move out of the property? What can you do to prevent this happening to you and what can you do if it is happening now?

Keeping your home.ie has produced a factsheet on this issue and it contains the following information on protecting your tenancy:

• The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 covers most rental tenancies. In other words, they are agreements between you and a private landlord, rather than between you and a local authority or social housing organisation.
• During the first six months, the landlord can terminate the tenancy fairly easily, but after six months they can only kick you out if they have ‘reasonable grounds’, such as you not paying rent, you severely neglecting the property, having too many occupants in the house, the landlord wanting to make changes to the property, the landlord wanting to sell it, the landlord wanting to use it for business purposes or the landlord and his family needing to move into the property.
• If you haven’t paid your rent within 14 days of the landlord letting you know it is overdue, the landlord may send you a formal written notice of termination. By law, you should receive any such notice in writing for it to be legally valid. You are also then entitled to be given the chance to make things right.
• The landlord MUST give you written notice of termination and the notice period depends on the length of the tenancy:
• Less than six months: 28 days
• Six months or more, but less than one year: 35 days
• One year or more, but less than two years: 42 days
• Two years or more, but less than three years: 56 days
• Three years or more, but less than four years: 84 days
• Four or more years: 112 days
• Twenty or more years or rent controlled property: landlord cannot evict you.
• If there is serious anti social behaviour, such as violence or threats, the landlord only has to give you seven days notice.
• Your landlord must serve you with a notice of termination. This must be in writing, be signed by the landlord, state the date of termination and the reason for termination (if tenancy has lasted more than six months).
• Your landlord cannot cut off water, gas or electricity, physically evict you or remove your property from the flat.
• If your landlord kicks you out for a specific reason (i.e. he says his family wants to move into the property), but then doesn’t follow through with that reason, you can report him to the Private Residential Tenancies Board.

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Tags - accommodation household housing renting

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