Private Rented Accommodation - RTB Minimum Standards

RTB Inspections
Private Rental inspections / HAP/ RAS/Leasing/Complaints

Minimum standards in rented accommodation

  1. What the minimum standards are
  2. If your property does not meet the minimum standards
  3. Who you can contact

All landlords have a legal duty to ensure that their rented properties comply with certain minimum physical standards.
These minimum standards are set out in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations.

What the minimum standards are
For each house let or available for letting, the landlord must ensure that the rental property is in a proper state of structural repair. This means that the landlord must maintain the property in a sound state, inside and out. Roofs, slates, windows, floors, ceilings, walls, stairs, doors, skirting boards, fascias, tiles on any floor, ceiling and wall, gutters, down pipes, fittings, gardens and common areas must be maintained in good condition and repair.

The landlord must ensure that all gas, oil and electricity installations are maintained in good repair, and safe working order and that every room has adequate ventilation and both natural and artificial lighting.

Suitable safety restrictors must be fitted to windows through which a person could fall.

The landlord must provide:

a water closet with a dedicated wash hand basin with hot and cold water

a separate room, for the exclusive use of each rented unit, with a toilet, a washbasin and a fixed bath or shower with hot and cold water

a fixed heating appliance in each room, which is capable of providing effective heating and which the tenant can control

where necessary, suitably located devices for the detection and alarm of carbon monoxide

facilities for cooking and for the hygienic storage of food including, a 4-ring hob with oven and grill, fridge-freezer and microwave oven

access to a washing machine

access to a clothes-dryer if the rented unit does not have a private garden or yard

a smoke alarm and fire blanket

access to vermin-proof and pest-proof refuse storage facilities

In multi-unit buildings, the landlord must provide each unit with a mains-wired smoke alarm, a fire blanket, and an emergency evacuation plan. There must also be emergency lighting in common areas. For full details of rented accommodation requirements, please refer to the Regulations.

The Guide to Minimum Standards in Rented Accommodation outlines the main features.

The Guidelines for Housing Authorities – Minimum Standards in Rented Accommodation
aim to ensure standard approaches and procedures for inspection and enforcement across all local authorities.

If your property does not meet the minimum standards
Local authorities are responsible for enforcing these minimum standards. This includes inspection of properties. If you are a tenant and you think your accommodation is not up to standard, you can contact Kerry County Council Inspections Unit.

Tel: 066 7183853
Email: [email protected]

Failure to comply with the minimum standards can result in penalties and prosecution. Local authorities can issue Improvement Notices and Prohibition Notices to landlords who breach the minimum standards regulations.

An Improvement Notice sets out the works that the landlord must carry out to remedy a breach of the regulations.

There may also be a role for the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), for example, where a landlord is not responding to a request to repair a heating appliance or where a tenant is using the property in such a way as to lead to deterioration in the condition of the property and breach of a standard.

Complaints or queries regarding the minimum standards for rented accommodation should be directed to the Housing Inspection Unit.

Who you can contact
For general queries, contact Kerry County Council’s Housing Inspections Unit on 066 7183853 / [email protected]
Queries in relation to standards policy and legislation can be sent by email to: [email protected]

www.rtb.ie

Contact Us

Housing Dept,
Rathass, Tralee,
Co. Kerry
Housing Phone Extensions
Email:[email protected]

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