Sir, – I rent a room in a three-bedroom house in Crumlin. The monthly rent has increased from €1,200 to €1,700 this month, representing an increase of over 40 per cent in our monthly rent since we moved in five years ago.
Needless to say, our wages have not followed a similar pattern.
We received 28 days’ notice of our latest increase. I contacted the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) and the housing charity Threshold to ascertain how much notice we had to give.
To my utter disbelief, I was advised it was 56 days, as we had lived in the property for over two years. In order to receive a refund of our security deposit we are therefore faced with no option but to pay the higher rent, even though at no stage did we ever agree to it.
Should we be lucky enough to find alternative accommodation we can afford, I fail to see how any prospective landlord will wait 56 days for us to move in. The PRTB agreed this was “an unfortunate loophole in the law”.
I understand there must be protection for landlords but where, in this instance, is the protection for tenants? Tenant rights are in dire need of attention. There really is no reason why this loophole cannot be closed immediately. – Yours, etc,
CATHERINE MORRISSEY,
Dublin 12.