SBPost - "Landlords offering rent-free periods to entice tenants must disclose deals to regulator - RTB"

Article paywalled but here's a snippet:

Rosemary Steen, director of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), said landlords offering rent-free periods to tenants need to disclose these arrangements to the agency when they register a new tenancy.

“We're the owner or the custodian of the registry data. If somebody's doing [a rent-free deal], and they don't register with us, that's non-compliance,” she said at a conference organised by the RTB last week.

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Is it possible when registering a tenancy with the RTB to include details of a rent- free period?

llgon said:

Is it possible when registering a tenancy with the RTB to include details of a rent- free period?

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Lol it's hard enough to register an ordinary tenancy on that soviet era website let alone doing fancy stuff like that.

It also begs the question - what is the problem here. The one I saw advertised involved 2 weeks rent free if you signed up for the lease before Black Friday. Surely this is good for tenants?

Also, does the legislation say that you must report rent free periods or special offers like this.

Some landlords would give long standing tenants a small discount at Christmas for example. Are they in breach of the Residential Tenancies Act for not reporting that. How do you report it in any event?

This seems like overreach when there are far more serious issues in the rental market - huge backlogs for having RTB cases heard for example.

Did she disclose the reasoning behind it? If you offered say 1 month free on a €2,000 a month property, are the RTB going to put the annual rent at €22,000 instead of €24,000, so any future increases is based on the lower amount?

I would consider it an issue as it is a way of getting around RPZ zones. You register a very high price and offer free periods. You then can limit the rent free period and can increase by under 2 per cent while still increasing your income by more.

Steven Barrett said:

Did she disclose the reasoning behind it? If you offered say 1 month free on a €2,000 a month property, are the RTB going to put the annual rent at €22,000 instead of €24,000, so any future increases is based on the lower amount?

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Just this (from the article):

She added at the point of registration, landlords are required to inform the RTB of the full rent amount being charged to the tenant.
“They are also required to provide the frequency that the rent is paid. This can be recorded as weekly, fortnightly or monthly. It is a landlord’s responsibility to provide accurate and up-to-date information when registering a tenancy.”

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ClubMan said:

Just this (from the article):
She added at the point of registration, landlords are required to inform the RTB of the full rent amount being charged to the tenant.
“They are also required to provide the frequency that the rent is paid. This can be recorded as weekly, fortnightly or monthly. It is a landlord’s responsibility to provide accurate and up-to-date information when registering a tenancy.”

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How exactly do you report it? The registration process allows you to insert the rent and the frequency, but if it is monthly rent with one month free, I don't think there is any mechanism to report that.

I suspect though that Steve Barrett is correct it is to catch people putting in very high headline rents, reducing them via rent free periods, but basing the next increase off the top rent. That said, as the RPZ system effectively mandates that when you enter it for the first time it should be at the highest rent possible, so the RTB shouldn't be surprised when things like this happen.

llgon said:

Is it possible when registering a tenancy with the RTB to include details of a rent- free period?

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Will the RTB add the ability to report rent free periods the tenants took themselves?

Greenbook said:

does the legislation say that you must report rent free periods

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I'd very much like to see what RTB grounds this 'reporting' requirement on.

Never mind the fact that its impossible to do so.

It highlights, yet again, the nonsense of rent control legislation.

Incidentally the 'high initial rents' are as much to protect the investment value of the property as to maximise profit.