S.I. No. 286/2019 - Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 (Commencement) (No. 2) Order 2019

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 2nd July, 2019.

I, Eoghan Murphy, Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by subsection (4) of section 1 of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 (No. 14 of 2019), hereby order as follows:

1. This Order may be cited as the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 (Commencement) (No. 2) Order 2019.

2. The 1st day of July 2019 is appointed to be the day on which the following provisions of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 (No. 14 of 2019) shall come into operation:

(a) sections 34, 35 and 38; and

(b) sections 6 and 28, in so far as they are not already in operation.

GIVEN under my Official Seal,

27 July, 2019.

EOGHAN MURPHY,

Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

This Order brings the following provisions of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 (No. 14 of 2019) into operation with effect from 1 July 2019:

section 6, in so far as it is not already in operation, i.e. the requirement for a landlord to submit a notice the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) regarding his/her reliance on an exemption from the Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) rent increase restriction and the provision for offences relating to non-compliance with that notification requirement;

section 28, in so far as it is not already in operation, i.e. the remaining provisions of the new Part 7A – Complaints, Investigations and Sanctions; the RTB’s powers under Part 7A to make sanctioning procedural rules and to appoint authorised officer and decision makers for the purposes of its new sanctioning function were brought into force on 31 May 2019;

section 34 which sets out the list of improper conduct by a landlord under a new Schedule 2 to the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2019 (the Acts) in respect of which the RTB’s new sanctioning powers can be applied.

section 35 which sets out the procedures under a new Schedule 3 to the Acts for any oral hearings held by RTB authorised officers/decision makers in context of investigations carried out under the new Part 7A – Complaints, Investigations and Sanctions.

section 38 which inserts a new section 3A into the Planning and Development Act 2000 requiring planning permission in respect of a change of use for certain short-term letting of accommodation in RPZs and empowering the Minister to make related planning and development regulations.