Landlord selling: your rights as the tenant

A landlord who intends to sell is the most common reason a tenancy ends in Ireland. The RTB's figures for Q2 2026 show 4,031 notices of termination, and 50.2% of them cited a sale. Whether your landlord can use that ground, and what has to come with the notice, depends on when your tenancy began and on how many tenancies the landlord has.

For a tenancy that began on or after 1 March 2026, a larger landlord cannot end it to sell at all. A smaller landlord needs a hardship ground during a six-year cycle, or the end of the cycle. For a tenancy that began before 1 March 2026, the sale ground is open to any landlord, with a statutory declaration and the full notice period. In every case a sale does not have to mean a move: a landlord can sell with you in place.

This guide sets out the three regimes, viewings, the tenant-in-situ scheme and the rent rule that follows a sale notice. The notice checker tests a sale notice item by item, and the landlord-selling journey takes the steps in order.

The three regimes

A larger landlord has four or more tenancies, or is a company. A smaller landlord is an individual with three or fewer. 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 whether your landlord has three or fewer tenancies; smaller and larger landlords explains the rule and has the request.

A smaller landlord's hardship sale has its own tests. The dwelling is the landlord's principal residence, 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 hardship sale ground covers each test and the declaration it needs.

At the end of a six-year cycle a smaller landlord may serve a sale notice without hardship. The notice must be served before the cycle ends, with a termination date on or after it. The tenancy timeline shows when your cycle ends.

What a sale notice must contain

A sale notice is a notice of termination, so it has to pass section 62 like any other. In writing, signed, dated, the date of service, the termination date, the reason, and the statement that you may refer a dispute to the RTB within 90 days. A copy must reach the RTB within 7 days of service.

The sale ground adds a statutory declaration. The landlord swears, before a solicitor or a commissioner for oaths, that they intend to enter into a contract for sale within nine months of the termination date. Since 1 March 2026 a smaller landlord's declaration must also state that the landlord is not a company and has no more than three tenancies, and a hardship declaration must state the hardship ground itself. A sale notice without a declaration may be invalid on your answers.

The notice period is the ordinary one. A sale gives no shorter period: 90 days for a tenancy under six months, rising to 224 days after eight years, by the length of your tenancy on the date of service. Notice periods for tenants in 2026 has the table, and what a valid notice must contain has the full list.

Viewings

Since 1 March 2026 the Act requires a tenant to give agreed access at reasonable intervals for viewings connected with a sale intended to complete within nine months (s.16(ca)). The obligation applies even where the sale is with you in place.

The word that matters is agreed. Your right to peaceful and exclusive occupation continues through the sale, and the landlord or agent may enter only at a time arranged with you, except in an emergency. An agent who turns up unannounced, or who lets viewers in with a key while you are out, is in breach of the landlord's obligations. Agree a pattern in writing, such as one block of viewings a week at a set time, and keep a note of every visit. Landlord entry, privacy and viewings covers photographs, keys and what to do about a breach.

Selling with you in place

A landlord does not need a notice to sell. The tenancy is an interest in the dwelling, and a buyer takes it over as it stands: the same rent, the same terms and the same length of tenancy for the notice bands. For a tenancy that began on or after 1 March 2026 the buyer takes the remainder of the six-year cycle. A larger landlord who wants to sell has only this route.

Separately, the tenant-in-situ scheme lets your local authority buy the home from the landlord when a sale notice is served and your household qualifies for social housing support. The scheme runs within a national ceiling of about €157 million for 2026 and a reasonable-offer rule, so the council has to decide early and the landlord has to agree. Contact the housing department of your council as soon as the notice arrives, with the notice and the declaration. The tenant-in-situ scheme in 2026 sets out who qualifies and what to send, and the county pages carry each council's contact.

The rent after a sale notice

The rent cap follows the tenancy, not the owner. For a tenancy that began before 1 March 2026 the rent can never be reset to market while the tenancy lasts, and a buyer who keeps you on inherits that rule. A review is still once in any 12 months and capped at 2% or the change in the CPI, whichever is lower.

For a tenancy that began on or after 1 March 2026 a sale notice is a no-fault termination. The landlord, or the buyer, cannot set the rent of the next tenancy to market for two years after it. A reset is allowed only at the end of a six-year cycle, or where the previous tenancy ended by the tenant's choice, a tenant breach or unsuitability. When rent can be reset to market has the rules side by side.

If you learn after you leave that the home was re-let at a higher rent rather than sold, keep the evidence. The RTB can award damages where the ground was not genuine, and a listing, a new registration on the public register or a new tenant's account all count.

What to do when the notice arrives

Do not move out and do not stop paying rent. A sale notice that fails section 62, or that uses a ground the landlord does not have, may be invalid on your answers, and an invalid notice does not end the tenancy.

Run the notice through the notice checker. It asks when the tenancy began, how many tenancies the landlord has, whether a declaration is attached and whether the RTB got a copy, and it works out the dates. Ask the RTB in writing about the landlord's size if the tenancy began on or after 1 March 2026.

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 deal with sale notices every day. Contact your council about tenant in situ in the same week if your household gets HAP or is on the housing list.

If anything is missing or the ground is not open to the landlord, refer the notice to the RTB within 90 days of service. Keep the notice, the declaration, every message about viewings and a note of each visit in your tenancy file.

Where this leaves you

A sale is the most common ground, and it is the one the 2026 Act narrowed most. A larger landlord cannot end a 2026 tenancy to sell. A smaller landlord needs hardship during a cycle or the end of the cycle. Any landlord may end a pre-2026 tenancy to sell, with a declaration and the full period. In every case a sale can happen with you in place, viewings are by agreement, and the rent cap follows the tenancy. Check the notice, keep paying rent, ring Threshold, ask your council about tenant in situ, and refer the notice inside 90 days if anything is wrong. The landlord-selling journey takes those steps in order.