What a landlord has to send you when the rent changes

A rent increase is not a message. It is a notice with a defined content, and a notice that is missing part of it is not valid. If one has landed with you, these are the things to check before you agree to anything.

It has to go to two places on the same day

The landlord serves the notice on you and sends it to the Residential Tenancies Board on the same day. If it never went to the Board, the notice is invalid. You cannot see the Board's copy, but you can ask, and a landlord who did it properly will have a record.

It has to carry a statement

• The date the rent was last set. This is what decides whether a review is even due, because reviews are allowed once every twelve months.
• A printout from the Board's own rent calculator showing how the new figure was worked out.
• Details of three comparable properties from the Board's Rent Register.

Then check the figure

The increase is capped at 2% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. A landlord applying 2% in a year where inflation is running at 1.4% has used the wrong one. Our calculator shows both figures side by side so you can see which should have bound.

There is one exception worth knowing: new apartments and student accommodation where building work started on or after 10 June 2025 can follow inflation with no 2% ceiling. If your building is new, that may be why the figure is higher than you expected.

If something is missing

Raise it in writing with the landlord first, and keep the notice. If it is not resolved, the Residential Tenancies Board runs a dispute resolution service and a rent review is one of the things it deals with. Do not stop paying the existing rent in the meantime, because that creates a separate and much worse problem.