Two schemes
Cost Rental (Housing Agency)
Local Authority
If your landlord is selling and you have been served a notice of termination, there is a route most tenants have never heard of: the State can buy the property from your landlord and keep you in it as its tenant. Nothing about your home changes except who you pay rent to.
Quick facts
- Two schemes
- Cost Rental (Housing Agency) · Local Authority
- Cost Rental income limit
- €66,000 Dublin · €59,000 elsewhere (net)
- You need
- A valid notice of termination
- Apply to
- Your local authority — early
What it actually is
A tenant in situ scheme lets you carry on renting your home when your landlord is selling, because your local authority or the Housing Agency buys the property from them and becomes your landlord instead. There are two of them and which one applies to you depends on whether you are already getting housing support.
Cost Rental Tenant in Situ — for private renters
The Housing Agency buys the property and you rent from them. You can use this scheme if you are a private tenant who has received a valid notice of termination and is at risk of homelessness because the landlord is selling.
The income test is on net household income: below €66,000 a year in Dublin and €59,000 everywhere else. You must not own other residential property.
Local Authority Tenant in Situ — for HAP and RAS tenants
If you are renting privately and getting the Housing Assistance Payment or are on the Rental Accommodation Scheme, your local authority can buy the property instead and you continue renting from the council.
How to apply
Contact the housing section of your local authority as soon as you get the notice of termination and say you want to be considered under the tenant in situ scheme. Bring the notice itself — it is the document the whole thing turns on.
Phone, forms and how long it takes
- Housing Agency, Dublin 2
- +353 1 656 4100
- Threshold Tenancy Protection Service (if you have a notice of termination)
- 1800 454 454
- Housing Agency: questions about the Cost Rental Tenant in Situ Scheme
- tenantinsitu@housingagency.ie
From the official pages (citizensinformation.ie), re-checked every night. Numbers and times can change, so check the official page before you send anything.
Common questions
What is the Tenant in Situ scheme?
What is the income limit?
Do I need a notice of termination?
What if I'm on HAP?
Check the official sources
This guide is general information, not financial advice. Rules, rates and eligibility change and differ by country — always confirm the current details with the relevant official body before you act.
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