On July 12 of this year, approximately 20 years on from the enactment of the ground-breaking Residential Tenancies Act 2004, the Government enacted the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2024, a piece of legislation aimed at targeting some of the key issues facing students in their search for accommodation for the academic year. The provisions made in this Act will have real implications for students seeking accommodation for the duration of the college year, and accordingly, should be understood by students as they will be one of the most affected demographics by this new Act.
Over the past year, the topic of student accommodation has consistently featured in the headlines, and has been punctuating public discourse for a myriad of reasons; including on-campus rent hikes, confusion over the status of residents’ rights, and new legislation redefining the legal dynamics in relation renting accommodation.
The constant flux of news in relation to this area easily leads to confusion for students in relation to the rights they possess concerning their residential accommodation. Earlier this year, a Trinity College Dublin Student Union (TCDSU) report revealed that a third of Trinity students were unaware of whether they were a tenant or a licensee with respect to the accommodation they resided in, and hence, had a limited understanding of what rights they held in relation to their residency.
So, in a year where a complex range of changes have been undertaken with relation to student-specific accommodation, it is easy to overlook the ramifications of the new Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act passed this July. However, a number of distinct positive changes have been enacted by this legislation, with real benefits for students renting accommodation across the country.
Who the Act applies to
The new act makes a number of changes in relation to students residing in what is referred to as Student-specific Accommodation (SSA). SSA, according to the Residential Tenancies Board of Ireland, refers to “housing built or designated for students and used for the sole purpose of providing residential accommodation to students during the academic term.”
This distinction is relevant for Trinity students, as all accommodation owned and provided by the college for students, such as Trinity Hall, is classified as SSA. Furthermore, a number of significant private accommodation companies based in Dublin city centre that habitually accommodate Trinity students, such as Point Campus and Kavanagh Court, also fall under the definition of SSA. The SSA Register, which lists all residences that are classified as SSA in Ireland, can be found here.
In the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019, SSA was brought under the remit of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, meaning that students occupying SSA residencies, whether in a lease or licence, were largely subject to the same rights as those in leases as laid out in the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, and are protected by the Residential Tenancy Board’s regulations. Such rights include longer periods of notice required to be given on the part of the landlord/licensor.
So, in addition to these comprehensive rights that are already provided to students in SSA residences, this new Act brings reinforced legal protections to students seeking residency in SSA for the academic year.
Key takeaways from the Act
The most significant change that the Act has made is that any lease or licence for student specific accommodation must not exceed 41 weeks, in an effort to align leases or licences with the standard academic year. The introduction of this section legally ensures that students will not be forced to pay for SSA extending into summer months, a period for when a large proportion of students will no longer require their accommodation.
Any contraventions made by the landlord or licensor in relation to this requirement, can be referred to the Residential Tenancies Board (the RTB) for dispute resolution.
This change comes after the discontent which came from student reports that certain SSA residencies had been only offering them 51-week contracts for accommodation; a matter which the Union of Students of Ireland (USI) brought to the government’s attention earlier this year. Under the new legislation, such accommodation agreements will not be reached unless the students themselves specifically request a tenancy period that is longer than 41-weeks.
Following the enactment of the new legislation, USIpresident Chris Clifford said: “We are glad that this issue has now been settled ahead of the start of the academic year. It will take some stress and pressure off students that were trying to deal with these specific private student accommodation providers.”
However Clifford had more to say about the general environment that students operate in when seeking accommodation over the summer.
“This issue yet again shows why we should not be relying on private developers to provide our student accommodation,” Clifford said, “They just want to squeeze as much money as possible from students and know how desperate many students are because of the housing crisis.”
“Yet again, we call on government to publish the long-awaited Student Accommodation Strategy urgently.”
As students still have the option to request an extension to this 41 week period, they still have a valuable flexibility for the lengths of their stay in SSA.
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As well as the reduction of the minimum length of leases or licences that landlords can offer in SSA, the Act also provides that a fixed term tenant or licensee of SSA can terminate its lease or licence during the time period from May 1 to October 1 by giving 28 days prior written notice, even if the landlord of the lease or licence hasn’t breached any of their contractual obligations in this time.
This change is significant, as it gives students flexibility with regards to their accommodation for the following academic year, in a way that wasn’t legally guaranteed prior to this Act. With this new freedom, students will be amenable to make changes to their accommodation plans for the following academic year, a mechanism reflecting the realities of the shifting landscape of student accommodation; one that causes many individuals to have to change their plans at short notice.
This is especially relevant for students accepting CAO offers beyond the first round. In 2023, 3,105 Round 2 CAO offers were made, a number of which will have had to make last-minute changes to their accommodation plans to facilitate a change in their college course. With this new provision, students who have to rapidly back out of contractual leases or licences of SSA will be able to do so on legal grounds with no repercussions.
The final takeaway from the act that will be most relevant to students is that landlords will not be able to seek an advance payment of rent exceeding an amount equivalent to one month’s rent. While existing legislation already provided that students were not required to pay this, this new Act goes further in mandating that landlords cannot actively seek this themselves. While it is relevant to students as it acts as a further safeguard from exploitation by landlords, it is worth noting that this new change will apply to tenancies in general, and not just to SSA.
The changes brought by this Act can be generally conceived as positive: they show a real and active recognition to the precarious position that students often find themselves in with relation to the accommodation agreements. After the TCDSU report on housing was published earlier this year, it was made clear that students are not only unsure of certain specificities in relation to their housing rights, but also exist in a state of unease relating to various aspects of their residential situations. The changes made by the new Act convey a certain resolve on the part of the government to improve the situation for students seeking accommodation for the academic year, even if it is only on the back of significant calls for change on the part of student organisations.
