Ireland’s largest private student landlord has threatened the Government with legal action over emergency legislation passed last month banning operators from forcing students to accept 51-week leases at purpose-built student accommodation centres.
The Yugo platform, operated by UK-anchored Global Student Accommodation (GSA), wrote to Minister for Higher Education Patrick O’Donovan in early July, warning him that it was “actively pursuing all legal options” after the Coalition approved the fast-tracking of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act on July 2nd to allow it pass through the Oireachtas before the summer recess.
Signed into law on July 12th, the Act – which requires that students be given the option to take on a shorter lease more in line with the academic calendar – was a response to a decision by Yugo and other private student landlords to offer only 51-week leases for the 2024-2025 academic year at their properties in the Republic.
The decision was widely criticised by universities, student groups and Opposition politicians. In his former role as minister for higher education, Taoiseach Simon Harris committed to liaising with Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien to ban the practice after it emerged that the change to a longer 51-week lease structure could add €3,000 annually to students’ housing costs.
Documents released to The Irish Times as part of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request reveal that GSA, which operates 4,000 beds in Dublin and Cork, wrote to the department on several occasions since the start of the year, most recently in early July.
In an email on July 3rd, GSA expressed frustration that it had not been able to meet Mr O’Donovan to discuss the Bill. The company said the legal change had been made “without regulatory impact assessment, without consultation with affected stakeholders” and “after weeks ignoring our request for [the Minister’s] attention”.
The company said it had been left with “no other option other than to pursue legal avenues”.
On July 5th lawyers for GSA sent a letter to the department, the contents of which were not released as part of the FOI request due to “legal professional privilege”, an official said.
GSA, however, detailed its objections to the legislation in an accompanying letter to the Minister on the same date, claiming its tenants wanted longer leases.
“We cannot understand the unseemly haste in these final few days before the summer recess,” the company said in the letter to Mr O’Donovan and Minister of State in the department Niall Collins. “This haste is particularly troubling in circumstances where we have made repeated requests over the last few months to you both to meet to discuss the future of the student accommodation sector in Ireland.”
Accusing the Government of a “sleight of hand” in its representation of the Bill, GSA claimed the new rules would bar any landlord in the Republic from offering standard one-year tenancies.
In response to queries from The Irish Times on Thursday, a spokesman for GSA said its “preferred route is not a legal one”. GSA said it wanted to have a “a pragmatic conversation around the challenge of affordability that we see occurring in every European capital city”.
The spokesman said GSA was “surprised that the Government did not engage once, in contrast with the substantial Government engagement with the house building and PRS [private rented sector] industry”.
The department has been approached for comment.
Earlier this week, news website the Journal reported that Yugo told two student tenants, who had requested to switch to a 41-week lease for the upcoming academic year, that the leases were only available for specific, more expensive rooms.
Responding to The Irish Times on Thursday, a spokesman for GSA said the implementation of the new rules “has been highly unusual” and due to its “last minute” nature, “this has naturally created significant confusion not least because some room types had already been fully taken up”.
The spokesman said: “We’re sorry if this has caused confusion with a small number of students but regrettably, when significant interventions are made on this sort of scale at short notice without engagement, there will be an impact as all parties get to grips with new legislation and appropriately update their systems.”
Mairéad Farrell, Sinn Féin spokeswoman on higher education, said it was “remarkable” that the company, which “raised the potential for legal action against the new Act”, was reported to be giving incorrect information to students.
“Moreover, if this provider wants to argue that their motivation is concern for their students, who they claim need 51-week leases, then they need to explain how the new legislation works against that. Because it permits students to request a 51-week [lease] if they so wish.”
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