Spike in ‘Notices to Quit’ as Louth landlords jump ship ahead of rental reforms

By Olivia Ryan, The Drogheda Independent

Louth County Council has received more than 300 Notices to Quit (NTQs) from private landlords over the past two years, with a sharp rise recorded in recent weeks ahead of changes to rental sector regulations due to take effect next month.

Figures obtained by the Irish Independent show that 134 notices were submitted to the Council’s housing section in 2024, followed by 135 in 2025. Already in 2026, the local authority has received 45 NTQs in just the first six weeks of the year, signalling growing pressure within the private rental market.

The trend was highlighted at this month’s meeting of Louth County Council, where Cllr. Kevin Meenan queried whether the legislative changes coming into force on March 1 were having an impact on social housing applicants and households facing the end of their tenancies.

“With the new planned rules coming in now on March 1, what is the anticipated effect on tenants?” he asked.

Cllr. Meenan told the meeting he had received “quite a number of representations” from people whose private tenancies had recently ended, many of whom he referred to the Council’s homeless services for assistance. He questioned whether the Council’s housing staff had seen a corresponding increase in NTQs.

“There are many people who can’t find somewhere to rent as well because a lot of landlords are waiting until March 1 to start new tenancies,” he said. “I would be fairly pessimistic about this going forward.” He called on the Council to outline what approach it is taking in response.

Responding, Ger Murphy, Director of Services, said several changes to rental legislation would come into effect in the coming weeks but clarified that the reforms would not apply to current tenants.

“I think it is important to point out that these changes don’t affect existing tenancies,” he said. “There seems to be a little bit of confusion around this, but they are unaffected by these changes.”

He said the new rules will apply only to new tenancies from March 1, and form part of wider Government policy aimed at strengthening tenant security and stability.

“Having said that, we have noticed a very recent increase in ‘Notices to Quit’ being submitted to us, and we are doing our best to deal with those,” he added.

A raft of new private tenancy laws are set to come into effect from March 1, 2026, introducing six-year "Tenancies of Minimum Duration" which are aimed at increasing security and restricting "no-fault" evictions. Rent increases will be pegged to national CPI inflation (rather than HICP), with a 2pc cap in high inflation. Larger landlords, with four or more rented properties are facing tighter eviction restrictions.

For further information on how these changes will affect tenants and landlords, check www.gov.ie.