The hardship sale ground for smaller landlords

A hardship sale is the only way a smaller landlord can end a tenancy that began on or after 1 March 2026 to sell during a six-year cycle. The sale must be needed to avoid undue hardship, and the Act gives three tests. The dwelling is needed as the principal residence of the landlord or their spouse, or a debt of more than 15% of the price falls due within nine months, or the landlord is insolvent. Retirement alone is not hardship.

The ground is open only to a smaller landlord, an individual with three or fewer tenancies. A larger landlord, meaning four or more tenancies or any company, cannot end a 2026 tenancy to sell at all. At the end of a six-year cycle a smaller landlord may sell without showing hardship. For a tenancy that began before 1 March 2026 the ordinary sale ground applies and no hardship is needed.

The notice must carry a statutory declaration that states the hardship ground itself. The notice checker tests a hardship sale notice against each requirement, and the landlord-selling journey takes the steps in order.

Who the ground applies to

A six-year cycle starts when the tenancy reaches six months and becomes a Tenancy of Minimum Duration. A cycle-end notice must be served before the cycle ends with a termination date on or after it. The tenancy timeline shows the dates for your tenancy, and the six-year cycle explains how it runs.

Size is assessed on the day the notice is served, and four tenancies in one subdivided house count as four. You can ask the RTB in writing, with proof of identity and a copy of the notice, whether your landlord has three or fewer tenancies. Smaller and larger landlords explains the rule and has the request.

The three hardship tests

The three tests are the whole list. A landlord who does not fit one of them does not have the ground during a cycle, however pressing the reason. A declaration that names a test the facts do not support is untrue, and the RTB can award damages where the ground was not genuine.

Two of the tests have figures in them. For the debt test, 15% of a €400,000 asking price is €60,000, and the debt must fall due within nine months of the notice rather than at some point in the future. For the residence test, the home must be for the landlord or the spouse, not for a child or a parent; a relative moving in is the separate family-occupation ground.

What is not hardship

Retirement alone is not hardship. The Act says so in terms, and the Oireachtas added the words to answer the landlord who wants to realise the asset on retiring. Nor is a wish for a better return, the rent cap, a plan to buy elsewhere, a fall in the market, or the ordinary cost of owning a rented home.

A landlord in any of those positions still has two routes. They may sell with you in place, so that the buyer becomes your landlord and the tenancy continues on the same terms for the rest of the cycle. Or they may wait for the end of the cycle and serve an ordinary sale notice then. Neither route needs hardship, and neither ends your tenancy early.

The declaration must state the ground

A hardship sale notice carries a statutory declaration, sworn before a solicitor or a commissioner for oaths. Since 1 March 2026 that declaration must state three things. The landlord is not a company and has no more than three tenancies; the landlord intends to sell; and the sale is needed to avoid undue hardship, with the ground it rests on. A declaration that only says the landlord intends to sell is the ordinary sale declaration, and on its own it does not support a notice served during a cycle.

The rest of section 62 applies as to any notice: in writing, signed, dated, the date of service, the termination date, the reason, and the statement that you may refer a dispute within 90 days. A copy must reach the RTB within 7 days of service. The notice period is the ordinary one for the length of your tenancy, from 90 to 224 days; hardship does not shorten it. A notice that misses any of these may be invalid on your answers, and an invalid notice does not end the tenancy. What a valid notice must contain has the full list.

How to test the claim

Start with the landlord's size. Ask the RTB in writing whether the landlord has three or fewer tenancies, and keep the reply. If the answer is four or more, or the landlord is a company, the ground is not open at all.

Then read the declaration. Does it state hardship, and which test? Does it say the landlord is not a company and has no more than three tenancies? A declaration that is silent on the ground is a defect in itself. You are entitled to take the declaration at its word for the purpose of deciding what to do, but you are not required to accept a claim that the facts do not support.

You cannot see the landlord's bank statements, and the RTB will not expect you to. What you can do is refer the notice within 90 days and say in the application that you question the ground. The landlord then has to show the hardship to the RTB. Keep everything the landlord has said about the reason for selling, in messages, emails or conversation notes, in your tenancy file. A landlord who told you in June that they were retiring and swore to hardship in September has given you evidence.

Viewings, tenant in situ and the rent

A hardship sale is still a sale, so the ordinary rules follow. Since 1 March 2026 you must give agreed access at reasonable intervals for viewings connected with a sale intended to complete within nine months, at times you agree and never unannounced. Your local authority may be able to buy the home under the tenant-in-situ scheme if your household qualifies; contact the council's housing department as soon as the notice arrives. Landlord selling: your rights as the tenant covers both.

A hardship sale notice is a no-fault termination. The rent of the next tenancy in the dwelling cannot be reset to market for two years after it. If the home is re-let rather than sold, or re-let at a higher rent, keep the evidence; the RTB can award damages where the ground was not genuine.

What to do when the notice arrives

Do not move out and do not stop paying rent. A hardship sale notice that fails section 62, that is silent on the ground, or that comes from a landlord who is not a smaller landlord, may be invalid on your answers.

Run the notice through the notice checker. It asks when the tenancy began, where you are in the cycle, the landlord's size, what the declaration says and whether the RTB got a copy, and it works out the dates.

Ring Threshold on 1800 454 454, Monday to Friday 9am to 9pm, with the notice and the declaration in front of you. The advisers are free, and the hardship ground is new enough that they see most of the notices that use it. If the ground is not open to the landlord or the declaration does not state it, refer the notice to the RTB within 90 days of service. Mediation is free and private; adjudication costs €30 and, since 14 September 2026, the hearing is public.

Where this leaves you

A hardship sale is a narrow ground for a narrow group: a smaller landlord, a 2026 tenancy, during a cycle, and one of three tests. A principal residence, a debt over 15% of the price due within nine months, or insolvency. Retirement alone is not hardship, and a larger landlord has no sale ground at all. The declaration must state the ground, and a notice that does not may be invalid on your answers. Ask the RTB about the landlord's size, keep paying rent, ring Threshold, and refer the notice inside 90 days if the ground is not made out. The landlord-selling journey takes those steps in order.