Explained: Here's what the new rules for renters and landlords mean

The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) has launched a public information campaign to support tenants and landlords in Cork to understand new rental law changes from March 1.

According to the RTB, the main ways the rental law changes will impact tenants and landlords include stronger protections for tenants with rolling six-year minimum tenancies.

They also include new rules that restrict how and when a landlord can end a tenancy, a new national system of rent control where annual rent increases are limited to 2% or inflation for most tenancies, and a new provision that allows landlords to reset the rent to market levels in limited circumstances.

The changes will apply only to new tenancy agreements entered into on or after March 1. Existing tenancies will not be affected, and the new legislation does not alter the terms of current agreements, the RTB has confirmed.

From March 1, landlords in Cork must now provide a rent setting or rent review notice to both the RTB and their tenant to explain how they determined the new rent level.

They do this by providing three examples of rents paid for comparable properties drawn from a new online tool, the RTB Rent Register, which will also go live on 1 March. 

This register will allow landlords in Cork to search for rents paid for similar tenancies in the same Local Electoral Area as the tenancy for which they are setting rent.

Dedicated resources are now available on the RTB.ie website for tenants and landlords in Cork explaining the new rules. The organisation is calling on landlords to register for a series of educational webinars over the next three weeks that will support landlords to comply with the new rental laws.