Picture this: you've just let your property and entered into a fixed term tenancy for, say, 12 months with new tenants. Wonderful! Peace of mind and a fixed income for the next year means in this current volatile climate you can sleep easy tonight. Think again!

By entering into this 12 month fixed term tenancy you are unwittingly contractually bound to a Part 4 tenancy. Why? A Part 4 tenancy will run alongside a fixed term tenancy and once the tenancy passes the 6 month mark, (which is inevitable because you have a fixed term which is for a period of 6 months or more), your tenant will be entitled to avail of the protections provided for under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, i.e. you are effectively entering into a 4 year lease with this tenant from the outset. The only way to avoid this pitfall would be to seek to remove the tenant under circumstances where the tenant breaches and continues to breach the lease in a material way, for example, by non-payment of rent.

If a long fixed term is desired then T.O. Doyle Solicitors recommend that a landlord enter into a 12 month lease but with a break clause before the expiration of 6 months to be exercised at the option of the landlord only. This will at least give the option to remove a potentially troublesome tenant before Part 4 rights are acquired.

We can prepare this clause for your lease. Email contact@todoyle.ie for more