Minimum standards for rented housing: the 2019 Regulations

Every rented home in Ireland must meet the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019. They set out, heading by heading, what the home must have and in what condition. The landlord's duty to keep the home to them is in section 12 of the Residential Tenancies Act, and the local authority enforces them by inspection.

The Regulations are specific enough to check against. A fixed heating appliance in every room, hot and cold water, an extractor in the kitchen and the bathroom, a fire blanket and smoke alarms. A cooker and a fridge-freezer, a washing machine, and a carbon monoxide alarm where there is a fuel-burning appliance. If one is missing, the home is below the standard, and the landlord has to put it right.

This guide lists the eleven headings and what each requires, what the Regulations do not cover, and what to do when a home fails. The standards check takes you through them one by one against your own home.

The eleven headings

Each heading is a standard in its own right. A home can be warm and dry and still fail on fire safety, or have every appliance and fail on ventilation. The inspector checks all eleven.

The headings people ask about most

Heating is the one most often missing. A fixed appliance means a radiator, a storage heater, a stove or a wall-mounted heater, in every room, not a plug-in heater carried from room to room. You must be able to control it, so a system that only the landlord can switch on is below the standard.

Hot water must reach a sink, a bath or shower and a washbasin. An immersion that the landlord has locked, or a shower that runs cold after two minutes because the cylinder is too small, is a standards question as well as a repair.

Ventilation means every room can be aired, and the kitchen and bathroom have a mechanical extractor. A bathroom with no window and no fan fails. Mould that follows is covered in mould and damp in a rented home.

Fire safety requires a fire blanket in the kitchen and smoke alarms. In a building with more than one dwelling the landlord must also provide emergency lighting and a fire detection and alarm system for the common areas. Smoke alarms that do not work count as missing.

Food preparation requires a cooker with an oven and hob, a fridge-freezer or a fridge and a freezer, a sink with hot and cold water, a microwave and cupboard space. Laundry requires a washing machine, or access to one in the building. Where the home has no garden or yard, a dryer is required too.

Electricity and gas must be safe and in good repair. The Regulations do not require a periodic certificate to be shown to you, but an inspector can ask for one. A carbon monoxide alarm is required wherever there is a fuel-burning appliance, which includes a gas boiler, a stove and an open fire.

Window safety restrictors are required on windows above a certain height from the ground, so that a child cannot fall. They can be opened fully by an adult for escape.

What the Regulations do not cover

The Regulations say nothing about furniture beyond the appliances listed, about the Building Energy Rating, about broadband, about the size of a room, or about the number of people a home can hold. A cold, badly insulated home with a working radiator in every room meets the heating standard. A one-bedroom flat let to four people is a planning and fire-safety question for the council, not a standards one.

They also do not set a number of days for a repair. The Act says a reasonable time. This site uses 3, 7 and 28 days as planning figures, which repairs: who fixes what explains.

Local authority tenancies are mostly outside the Residential Tenancies Act, though the Regulations still apply to the council as landlord. Approved Housing Body tenancies are inside the Act and the Regulations apply in full.

Who enforces them, and how

Your local authority's private rented inspection service enforces the Regulations. You can ask for an inspection at any time; a landlord cannot refuse one. The inspector visits, checks each heading, and gives the landlord a report. Where the home fails, the council can serve an improvement notice requiring the work by a date, and then a prohibition notice, which bars the landlord from letting the home until it is done. A landlord who lets a home in breach of a prohibition notice commits an offence.

A home let under the Housing Assistance Payment must be inspected within 8 months of the first payment. Many councils inspect a share of all rented homes each year as well. Rented housing inspections covers how to ask, and the county pages have the contact for your council.

The RTB comes after the local authority. A dispute for breach of the landlord's obligations under section 12 can end in an order to do the work and damages of up to €20,000. The inspection report is the strongest evidence you can bring to it.

What to do if your home fails

Write to the landlord naming each heading the home fails on, with photographs and a date by which you expect it fixed. Keep paying the rent in full; a standards failure is never a reason to stop. Ask the council to inspect if the date passes. Then, if the landlord still does nothing, open an RTB dispute with the report. Ring Threshold on 1800 454 454, Monday to Friday 9am to 9pm, at any stage; the advice is free.

Where this leaves you

A rented home has to meet eleven headings, from a dry structure and heating in every room to a fire blanket, a washing machine and a carbon monoxide alarm. The landlord's duty is in the Act, the standard is in the 2019 Regulations, and the local authority inspects. Run the standards check against your home, write to the landlord with the headings it fails on, ask for an inspection, and keep the RTB for an order and damages afterwards. The repairs journey takes those steps in order.