The High Court has rejected a landlord’s appeal over a rent review notice, finding that the evidence before the Residential Tenancies Board’s Tenancy Tribunal could not establish an entitlement to an exemption from rent restrictions in a rent pressure zone.
The appeal concerned works to a dwelling at 25 The Garth, Kingswood Heights, Tallaght, Dublin 24. The landlord argued that a bedroom, previously used despite failing ventilation and fire-safety requirements, had been brought into compliance. He said the area had previously been only a storage space and that the works therefore permanently increased the number of rooms.
The Tenancy Tribunal had found that the works did not increase the number of rooms and ruled the rent review notice invalid. It considered building regulations irrelevant to that question. The landlord appealed to the High Court on a point of law under section 123 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004.
Justice Garrett Simons held that “room” in this context means a partitioned area available for lawful living or sleeping use, in compliance with building regulations and standards for rented accommodation. Mere storage space does not qualify. However, works to bring an area already used as a bedroom into compliance cannot count as an increase in rooms where they are required to meet prescribed rental standards.
The judge found that the Tribunal had erred in law by treating building regulations as irrelevant. But the High Court could not conduct a rehearing or take over the Tribunal’s fact-finding role. The engineer’s report before the Tribunal did not establish a breach: its author had not inspected the dwelling, it did not identify the provisions allegedly breached, and its admissibility was doubtful because the author gave no oral evidence.
With no evidence capable of supporting a lawful finding that the bedroom had been non-compliant, the landlord could not establish the exemption. The judge therefore dismissed the appeal and declined to send the matter back to the Tribunal for reconsideration. He said allowing further evidence at a new hearing would give the landlord a second opportunity to present his case. The tenancy had ended on 30 April 2025 and the tenants had left the dwelling.
The judge expressed a provisional view on costs: the RTB should recover one-third of its costs from the landlord, and the tenants should recover reasonable expenses and outlay of €900 from the RTB. Any party wishing to argue for a different costs order was directed to contact the High Court registrar by 5 June 2025. The judgment does not record a final costs order.