Major change in tenancy law introduced

• Published in: The Irish times
• Main Author: Marsh, Aidan
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dublin The Irish Times DAC 23.07.2008

So, for example, a person or a company renting a small office was able to contract out of their right to a new tenancy after five years, whereas multiple retail organisations renting an anchor unit in a shopping centre or multinational companies renting units in an industrial park could not. To overcome this anomaly, four-year and nine-month tenancies were developed for "non-office" business tenants, so that automatic renewal rights would not apply. The rule changes will not affect existing tenancies as the pre-conditions for waiving renewal rights will not have been complied with, i.e. the tenants will not have signed a valid waiver after receiving prior independent legal advice before the commencement of the tenancy. Accordingly the rule changes are not retrospective. Landlords need to be careful not to take on more responsibility than is normal in the case of future leases. Generally in long leases landlords pass either the responsibility or the cost of maintaining the external and structural parts of a building to tenants either through a direct covenant to repair (in the respect of a tenant of a stand-alone building) or service charge (in respect of multi-let buildings).