When rent can be reset to market, and when it cannot

Whether your rent can ever be reset to market depends on one date: the date your tenancy began. If it began before 1 March 2026 the rent cannot be reset while the tenancy lasts. The cap of 2% or CPI travels with it for as long as you stay, and nothing in the 2026 Act created a reset for you. If it began on or after 1 March 2026, the landlord may reset the rent to market at the end of each six-year cycle. A reset at the start of a new tenancy is allowed only where the previous one ended in one of three ways.

A reset is the one moment the cap does not apply. Between resets, every increase is capped at the lower of 2% and CPI, once in any 12 months, and never above market rent. The rent increase checker asks when your tenancy began and tells you which rules apply.

The two regimes side by side

Tenancies that began before 1 March 2026

If your tenancy began before 1 March 2026, the cap is yours for as long as you stay. There is no six-year reset, and the end of a Part 4 cycle is not a reset either. A landlord who wants market rent from you cannot get it while you remain, whatever a letter says about new rules.

That is true whether your tenancy began in 2015 or in February 2026. A tenancy that began between 11 June 2022 and 28 February 2026 is a tenancy of unlimited duration, with no cycles at all. Tenancies that began before 1 March 2026 explains what else still applies to you.

When you leave by your own choice, the next tenancy may start at market rent. That is the next tenant's rent, and it does not touch yours.

Tenancies from 1 March 2026: the end of a six-year cycle

A tenancy that began on or after 1 March 2026 becomes a Tenancy of Minimum Duration after six months, running in six-year cycles from the day it began. At the end of each cycle the landlord may reset the rent to market. The first such reset for a tenancy that began in March 2026 falls in March 2032.

The reset is still a rent review. The landlord must give at least 90 days' notice in the prescribed form, attach the RTB calculator printout and three comparable tenancies from the Rent Register, and send the RTB a copy within 7 days. The new rent cannot be above market rent, and the comparables are what show market. The rent review notice lists the contents.

Between cycle ends the ordinary cap applies. Tenancies of minimum duration explains the cycle itself.

A new tenancy: the three endings that allow a reset

For a tenancy created from 1 March 2026 the landlord may set the opening rent to market only where the previous tenancy ended in one of three ways.

• by the tenant's own choice, with the tenant's own notice;
• for a breach of the tenant's obligations, including rent arrears after the warning notice;
• because the dwelling no longer suited the needs of the household.

Where the previous tenancy ended any other way, the new tenant's rent is the previous rent plus no more than the cap. The landlord must give the new tenant and the RTB a rent-setting statement with the previous rent, when it was set, and three comparables. The rent-setting statement says what to do if you did not get one.

The two-year bar after a no-fault termination

A landlord who ends a tenancy without fault on the tenant's part cannot reset the rent for two years. That covers a termination to sell, for family occupation, for substantial refurbishment or for change of use, and it covers a notice served in the first six months with a reason but no ground. If the home is re-let within those two years, the rent is the previous rent plus the cap.

The bar is what stops a termination being used to get a higher rent. The rent-setting statement is how it is policed: the RTB receives it, and so does the new tenant. If you are the new tenant and the previous rent on the statement is well below yours, ask why in writing, and refer a dispute to the RTB if the answer does not hold up. The RTB can order rent paid over the cap repaid, with damages of up to €20,000.

Empty homes and protected structures

A dwelling not let for two years may be let at market rent. For a protected structure the period is one year. A gap shorter than that does not reset the rent, and neither does a change of landlord. If the home was sold with vacant possession and re-let within two years, the previous rent still sets the ceiling.

Student-specific accommodation

Student-specific accommodation is under the same cap. A reset to market is allowed once every three years, and the first reset cannot happen before 1 March 2029. A letting in student accommodation is limited to 41 weeks in any year. Student accommodation covers the rest.

How to check a reset you have been given

Start with the rent-setting statement. It names the previous rent and the date it was set. Compare that with the rent you are being asked for; if the gap is more than the cap, the landlord needs one of the resets above. Ask, in writing, which one. The letter builder has a confirm-in-writing letter.

Then look at how the previous tenancy ended. A sale, a family move, a refurbishment or a change of use within the last two years bars a reset. The RTB holds a copy of every notice of termination served since 1 March 2026, and the public register shows whether the tenancy is registered.

If the reset was not open to the landlord, refer a dispute to the RTB. Keep paying the rent you agreed while it runs. Challenging a rent increase at the RTB covers the application, and Threshold on 1800 454 454 will read the statement with you first.

Where this leaves you

A reset to market is allowed in four places and nowhere else. The first is the end of a six-year cycle for a tenancy that began on or after 1 March 2026. The others are a new tenancy after a tenant-led ending, a home empty for two years, and student accommodation every three years from 2029. A tenancy that began before 1 March 2026 is never reset while it lasts, and no tenancy is reset within two years of a no-fault termination. Check the rent-setting statement, ask in writing which reset the landlord relies on, keep paying, ring Threshold, and refer a dispute to the RTB if the answer is none.