Landlord harassment: what counts and what to do

Landlord harassment is conduct designed to make you leave, or to stop you using your rights, by means other than the law. It includes threats, repeated unannounced entry, cutting off the electricity, gas, water or heating, and removing doors or belongings. It also includes changing the locks, moving other people in, a stream of messages, and pressure to sign or to go without a notice. None of it ends a tenancy. A tenancy ends only by a valid notice of termination, by your own notice, or by agreement.

The Residential Tenancies Act does not use the word harassment. It gives you a right to peaceful and exclusive occupation under section 12, and the RTB treats conduct that breaks that right as a breach of the landlord's obligations, with damages of up to €20,000. Lock-outs, cut-offs and intimidation are also improper conduct that the RTB can investigate on its own account and prosecute.

If you are in danger tonight, ring the Gardaí on 999 or 112 before you read anything else. This guide covers what counts, how to record it, the RTB's two routes, and the one thing not to do.

Tonight, if you are in danger

Threats of violence, a landlord or someone sent by them forcing a way in, a confrontation at the door, or being put out on the street are matters for the Gardaí on 999 or 112. Say that you are a tenant, that the person is your landlord, and what is happening. A crime is a crime whoever commits it, and the Gardaí can attend, record it and act. Ask for the incident number.

If you have been locked out, do not force your way back in. Illegal eviction, lock-outs and cut-offs has the steps for the first night and the next morning. Ring Threshold on 1800 454 454, Monday to Friday 9am to 9pm; outside those hours the day the notice runs out lists the emergency numbers.

What counts

The question the RTB asks is whether the landlord's conduct interfered with your peaceful and exclusive occupation, or was designed to make you leave without a valid notice. The conduct that has been found to do so includes:

• Entering without arrangement, repeatedly, after being asked to stop.
• Cutting off or interfering with electricity, gas, water, heating or broadband.
• Changing the locks, removing a door, or removing your belongings.
• Moving another person into the home, or into a room in it, without your agreement.
• Threats, shouting, abuse, or messages at all hours.
• Telling you to leave by a date without a notice of termination, or with a document that is not one.
• Serving a notice, a rent review or a complaint to punish you for asking for a repair, an inspection or your deposit.
• Pressure to sign a new lease, a waiver, or an agreement to leave.

A single raised voice is not harassment, and a landlord who serves a valid notice you do not like is not harassing you. The pattern, the intent and the effect are what matter, which is why the record is everything.

Record everything

Start a log today. For each incident write the date, the time, who was there, what was said or done, and what it cost you, with photographs and screenshots where you have them. Save voicemails. Ask any witness to write a few lines and sign them. Keep the log somewhere the landlord cannot reach, and keep a copy in your tenancy file.

Then put the conduct in writing to the landlord. A short letter that says what has happened, that you expect it to stop, that entry is by arrangement only, and that you are keeping a record will often end it. Where it does not, the letter is the proof that the landlord knew. The letter builder has a confirm-in-writing letter for this, in your words, with nothing stored on this site.

Keep paying the rent, in full and on time, and keep the proof. Harassment does not change your obligations, and a rent record with no gaps leaves the landlord's conduct as the only question.

Do not move out, and do not change the locks

Pressure works when the tenant goes. If you leave because of the conduct, the landlord has the home back without a notice, and your claim becomes harder, because you have to show you were forced out. If you can safely stay, stay. Your tenancy continues until it is ended lawfully, and the RTB can order the landlord to stop and to compensate you while you are still living there.

Do not change the locks yourself, cut off anything, or respond in kind. Each of those is a breach of your own obligations under section 16 and gives the landlord an answer. If the landlord has changed the locks on you, that is their breach, and the illegal eviction guide has the steps.

The RTB's two routes

The first route is yours: a dispute application for breach of the landlord's obligations. Mediation is free and private. Adjudication costs €30 and, for applications made from 14 September 2026, the hearing is public and the report names both parties and the address. You can ask the RTB to treat an application as urgent where you have been locked out or cut off. The RTB can order the landlord to stop, to restore a service or your access, and to pay damages of up to €20,000. The published average award is far lower, about €3,900 in one review, because the RTB compensates proven loss rather than distress. How to make an RTB dispute application covers the form, and RTB damages: what is actually awarded covers the figures.

The second route is the RTB's own. Lock-outs, cut-offs and intimidation are improper conduct under Part 7A of the Act. You can report them to the RTB's investigations unit, which can investigate the landlord, impose a sanction and prosecute. That route does not pay you compensation, and it runs on the RTB's timetable rather than yours, but it is the one that can end with a conviction. Use both.

A determination order the landlord ignores is enforced in the District Court, and the RTB can take that case for you. Determination orders and enforcement explains.

Where this leaves you

Harassment does not end a tenancy, and nothing the landlord does by pressure takes the place of a valid notice. If you are in danger tonight, the Gardaí on 999 or 112. Otherwise, log every incident, write once to say it must stop, keep paying rent, and stay if you safely can. Then bring the conduct to the RTB as a breach of section 12 for an order and damages, and report lock-outs and cut-offs as improper conduct so the RTB can act on its own. Threshold on 1800 454 454 is free, reads these cases every day, and should be your first call in working hours.