Tenant groups: tracking rent increases

One household complaining is a private matter. Six households with dated records is a pattern. This is the record and the questions — not legal advice.

Rent increases arrive one home at a time. The agent rings, or sends a text, or mentions it at the door. Each home is told something different, on a different day, at a different figure. Nobody writes it down, because it feels like a private problem. Six months later six households are paying more, none of them can say when they were told, and the landlord holds the only record.

Start here. Pick one person to keep the master record, and one format for everyone to use. Six lines filled in the same week beat a perfect file assembled from memory later.

The record

1. Why the group keeps one record

One household is easy to answer: the market rose, the last tenant paid more. Six households with dated records are different, because they show timing (six increases in one fortnight is one decision, not six coincidences), method (two letters, three texts, one conversation — invisible until the group compares notes) and spread (rises from a few per cent to far more, depending on who asked, are hard to explain as a market).

Memory is not a record. Nobody remembers whether the letter came in March or May, and that date often decides the argument. Most rent problems settle without a case. But a group arriving with a date, a figure and the notice is treated very differently from a group that "thinks it was about 8%".

2. What to record, home by home

Record the same things, in the same order, for every home, or the group cannot compare them.

The unit, not a name. Names stay on the master list, with one person.
The date the new rent starts, and when you were told. They are rarely the same, and the gap is often the argument.
Old rent and new rent, exactly as given. Do not round.
The rise in euro and as a percentage, worked out the same way for every home.
How you were told — letter, email, text, call, in person. A text is not a signed notice.
Who signed it. A landlord, an agency, or nothing at all.
Whether a valid written notice was given at all, and on what form. Keep the paper.
Whether the home was in a Rent Pressure Zone at the time: yes, no or not sure, with the date you checked.
Any improvement the landlord claims as a reason to go above the limit, in their words.
Anything said about the tenancy — selling, a relative moving in. The words, not your conclusion.
Action taken, by whom, on what date, asking for what.

Date every entry. A record built over months beats a tidy list written the week before a hearing.

Do not tidy it up later. Do not change a date because someone is unsure, and do not write a stronger version of what was said. Mark gaps as gaps. A file that is honest about what it does not know survives scrutiny; one that is too neat does not.

3. The template

Copy this. One row per home, per increase, filled in the week it happens.

Column	What goes in it
Unit	Unit 3 — never a name.
Date noticed	The day the letter, text or call came.
How noticed	Letter, email, text, call, in person, via an agent.
Old rent	As charged. Do not round.
New rent	The figure asked for, and the date it starts.
% rise	Euro first, then a percentage. Same workings for every home.
RPZ yes/no	Yes, no or not sure, with the date checked.
In writing?	What was served, on what form — or "nothing".
Action taken	Who wrote to whom, on what date, asking for what.
Notes	Anything said about the tenancy, or about you asking.

As a spreadsheet, the column headings are:

For a thread in a group chat, one line per house is enough. Agree the order once and never change it:

Testing the increase

4. Is the increase allowed?

The rule now applies nationwide. On 1 March 2026 the Rent Pressure Zone system was replaced by national rent control rules, covering all private tenancies and student-specific accommodation. Annual increases are capped at the rate of general inflation or 2% a year, whichever is lower, measured by the Consumer Price Index. Newly built apartments and new student accommodation whose work started on or after 10 June 2025 are capped by inflation only. The rules on serving notices changed again on 14 September 2026.

Get the number from the calculator, not from this page. Use the RTB's rent calculator on the day, with the current rent, the date it was last set and the date the new rent would start. Do not rely on a figure a landlord gives you, or on anything printed here.

Exemptions. A landlord can reset the rent to market value only in set situations, and the list depends on when the tenancy began.

Before 1 March 2026: the property was not let at any time in the previous two years; or it is, or is in, a protected or proposed protected structure not let in the previous year; or it has been substantially changed.
On or after 1 March 2026: a longer list, adding the tenant leaving, the six-year tenancy ending, the home no longer meeting the tenant's needs, and three years passed in student-specific accommodation.

"Substantially changed" is narrow: not a new kitchen or boiler, but works such as a permanent extension above a set floor-area increase, more rooms, disability access works, or a BER jump of several ratings. Landlords relying on an exemption normally have to notify the RTB, and can be fined for not doing so. So ask in writing: which exemption, and can I see the form sent to the RTB? Even then the new rent must match market rent for a similar home, which is what the RTB rent register is for.

Keep recording the RPZ answer anyway. The system ended in February 2026, so it is no longer the first question. It still decides one thing: where an area became a Rent Pressure Zone shortly before that, the first rent review may not be allowed until 24 months after the rent was last set, rather than 12.

5. Was it a valid notice at all?

An increase is not valid because you were told, and does not become valid because you started paying. The notice must be right in form, timing and figures:

In writing, on the prescribed form. A text, a call or a note under the door is not a notice of rent review.
Copied to the RTB on the same day it is sent to you, or it is invalid. Since 14 September 2026 the landlord has a short window after you receive it to send the copy.
Given well before the new rent starts. Check the current period on the RTB's guide; the serving rules changed in September 2026.
Signed and dated, worked out with the calculator, not above market rent, with the comparables identified.

If it fails any of these it can be challenged. In a block like the example below, the usual failure is simpler: nothing was ever served. Keep the paper, the envelope, and a dated note of any call.

Worth knowing early. The deadline for referring a rent increase dispute to the RTB is short, but where the notice is invalid there is no time limit. Check the position with the RTB or Threshold rather than taking a date from a group chat.

6. The escalation timeline

Every affected household records it — same week, same format. Do not wait until you know whether the increase is allowed. Write it while people remember.
Ask the landlord in writing for the reason and the notice. One short letter from the group: what is the increase, what is it based on, is an exemption relied on, please send the notice and the calculation. Factual, copied, no argument. Nobody answers alone.
Compare notes and agree a position — what you are asking for, who speaks for the group, and what happens if only some homes are offered a reduction.
Put the group position in writing. One letter listing the units and the dates, signed by the households who agree. This is what later shows the landlord knew it was a group issue.
Escalate to RTB dispute resolution. No solicitor is needed to start, and a group can file together — each tenancy is its own application, prepared as a set. Check the timing rules, and read the privacy section first: the routes differ in how public they are.
Keep paying the rent. Arrears become a separate problem and can be used to end a tenancy. Dispute the increase; do not withhold rent to make the point.

7. If a termination notice follows

Sometimes a group raises a rent increase and a notice to end the tenancy arrives soon after. The timing is the point. Record when the group wrote to the landlord and when the notice arrived, and keep both.

There are rules about ending a tenancy for the wrong reason, and the RTB can decide whether a stated reason is false or misleading. Whether that helps depends on your tenancy and your paperwork. This is the week to get help from a solicitor, Threshold or a union officer: the periods for referring these cases are short, and hearings may be public. Do not move out on a verbal instruction, and do not stop paying rent.

People and safety

8. Privacy and safety for the group

The record is only useful if the group can keep it. It is also a list of who rents what and for how much — a document a landlord would like to have.

Unit numbers, never names — not addresses, phone numbers, immigration status, work details, or anything about children.
One keeper of the master list, plus one backup, agreed before you start. That is the only copy linking units to households.
Add people by name. No links anyone can open, and the master list stays off shared drives.
Check who is in the group chat. Partners, relatives, a former tenant or a friend of the landlord can all be in a group still called "the tenants". Start a separate chat, and agree what never goes in it.
Assume screenshots. The message that reaches the landlord is always the angry one.
Mind the background in photos. Other people's post, a car registration, a name on a bell. Assume anything in a group photo could end up with the landlord.
Ask before you include anyone. Some households are more exposed: someone in the landlord's own home, an informal sublet, a licence rather than a lease, someone on rent supplement. Keep those details out of the shared document.
Expect the process to be public. From 14 September 2026, RTB adjudication hearings are public and the full report is published, including the names of the parties and the property address, and the media may report it. Mediation stays private. If being identified matters to your group, that difference decides the route — so decide before you file.

9. A worked example

Everything here is invented. The block, the landlord and the figures are made up, to show the shape of the difference.

Not recorded. Eight flats, one block. In spring the agent rings each household separately: one is told the rent is going up a little because of the market, one gets a text, two get a one-page letter with no signature. Everyone pays, because it seems normal. In the autumn one tenant complains to the RTB: she cannot say when the call happened, has no letter, and cannot remember the old figure exactly. The agent produces a signed notice. Her case is her memory against theirs.

Recorded. The same block, the same spring. Six households fill in one line each, in the same week. The thread shows the increases landed in the same fortnight, that only two homes got a letter, that the letters were unsigned, that the rises ranged from a few per cent to roughly triple that, and that nobody received a notice of rent review.

What changes. The pattern can go into one letter instead of six complaints. If it goes further, a solicitor, Threshold or the RTB starts from a table rather than six memories. The record does not decide whether the increases were lawful — that turns on the current rules, the dates and the notices. It decides whether anyone can find out.

10. Where to check the current rules

This page describes what the RTB and Citizens Information published on 11 September 2026. The rules changed on 1 March 2026 and again on 14 September 2026. Re-check anything here before you rely on it.

RTB Rent Calculator The maximum increase allowed for a specific home. Use it on the day.
RTB — setting and reviewing private rents The current rules, the exemptions, and what counts as a substantial change.
RTB — guide to rent review notices What must be in a notice, how it is served, and the notice period.
RTB — disputes Mediation, adjudication and the Tribunal, with the deadline for each case type.
Threshold Free, confidential tenant advice, including the Tenancy Protection Service.
Citizens Information — rent increases A plain summary of the rules and the March 2026 changes, linking to the RTB.

This is not legal advice and does not replace a solicitor, Threshold, the RTB or a union officer. It is the record-keeping and the questions, so a professional can move faster: the dates are in one place, the notices are kept, and the landlord has already been asked for the reason in writing. Where this page describes a rule, it describes what the RTB and Citizens Information published on 11 September 2026. Verify it yourself before you act on it.

Free to copy, adapt and pass on. Corrections to [email protected].