Based on Contract Irish landlord and tenant legislation is relatively unique in that it is stated to be expressly based on contract. That is to say, the relationship is determined in large measure by the terms of the express or implied contract written or verbal between the parties. This important principle was declared in the Landlord and Tenant Law (Amendment) […]
Covenants Bind Successors The position in relation to leasehold covenants differs from that of freehold covenants. Prior to Deasy’s Act, the tenant was bound by covenants in the lease, which touched and concerned the land. Obligations touching and concerning the land are those which benefit it as such. They are covenants that benefit the land and not the owner, tenant […]
Lease Term or Duration The term of a lease or tenancy agreement is the period for which both the landlord must allow the tenant to stay and the tenant must comply with the obligations in the lease. During the term of the lease, tenancy agreement or letting agreement (the expressions mean much the same thing) the landlord cannot terminate the […]
Implied Covenants in leases. Deasy’s Act 1860 implies a number of covenants into leases on the part of landlord and tenant. They may be varied by the terms of the lease. They apply in the absence of anything to the contrary. The provisions of the modern Residential Tenancies Acts are almost all mandatory. No variation by contract is allowed. There […]
Repair Covenants The Landlord and Tenant Act applies to vary repair covenants in leases of tenements (buildings). Damages/compensation is not to exceed the amount by which the value of the reversion, i.e. the landlord’s future interest in the premises, is diminished. This does not apply where the want to repairs due to wilful damage or waste. Damages are not recoverable […]
Transferability Deasy’s Act 1860 provides that the estate or interest of a tenant under a lease is capable of being assigned by a deed or instrument in writing signed by the assignor or his agent lawfully authorised in writing. It is also capable of being passed by will, operation of law, such as by surrender. This provision applies to leases […]
General A landlord may seek to recover rent and leave the tenant undisturbed or may seek to recover rent and forfeit the lease. Generally, the tenant for the time being is liable for the rent. Multiple tenants are usually jointly and severally liable, so that any one of them, can be sued for the whole. As between each other, they […]
Periodic Tenancies Generally a periodic tenancy can be terminated by either landlord or tenant, by giving notice of termination to the other. In the case of a weekly tenant, the notice to quit period is generally a week. In the case of a monthly tenant, a month. In the case of a yearly tenancy, common law required a six months’ […]
Overview Distress is an ancient remedy by which a person is entitled to take the goods of another to compel performance of a duty or in satisfaction of a debt without a court order or process. By statute, distress is allowed for the collection of certain taxes, rates, fines and enforcement of court orders by courts of summary jurisdiction. At […]
Right to Lease Renewal Under Landlord and Tenant legislation, a tenant of a business property who has been in continuous occupation of the property for more than five years generally has a right to a new lease. Since late 2008, it has been possible to agree that this right will not apply (“contract out”). It had been possible to contract […]
Court Process A re-entry that involves force, by virtue of numbers or the physical breaking of the doors, locks et cetera, may be an unlawful forcible entry. Some forcible entries may constitute a criminal offence. Considerations of the Constitutional protection of the inviolability of the dwelling-house arise in residential cases. Almost all such cases are subject to the mandatory terms […]