Proposed legislation to close a “loophole” in how student rent is charged would require accommodation providers to include mandatory service charges in the rental price.
The Residential Tenancies (Student Rent) Bill aims to prevent student landlords of campus and private housing from circumventing rent controls and the 2 per cent limit in annual increases.
Labour further and higher education spokeswoman Senator Laura Harmon, who will launch the legislation on Wednesday, said mandatory fees, often labelled as service charges, can include utilities, bins, security or anything to do with the building in which students are housed.
Mandatory service charges have risen to very high rates, she said.
RM Block
Average student rent on campus ranges from €800 to €1,400. The Cork-based Senator cited increased charges/rent at College Park apartments in DCU, Glasnevin, last year.
In the 2024-25 academic year, DCU charged monthly rent of €755 with a mandatory monthly service charge of €87 for a total of €842. The following year, 2025-26, rent increased to €768 a month while the service charge rose to €130, a total cost of €898 a month.
Harmon said the rent increased by 1.7 per cent or €13 a month, but the service charge rose by €43 and the total increase was €56 or 6.7 per cent a month, well above the 2 per cent rent control rate.
In September last year, Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless wrote to DCU president Prof Dáire Keogh expressing dissatisfaction with the charges amid a student accommodation crisis.
“While this approach may be technically within the letter of the law, I do not believe it is in the spirit of the law and I am therefore asking DCU to reconsider this decision,” said Lawless in the letter.
In a response, Keogh maintained the rents are “charged to the letter of the RPZ [Rent Pressure Zone] law and additional service costs are calculated within the spirit of this legislation”.
“I reject any suggestion that DCU has sought to exploit loopholes in rent pressure protections,” he said, adding that utilities and services are charged separately.
Dessie Can Do It, part one: the birth of a new political force
Harmon, a former USI (Union of Students in Ireland) president, said her Bill “will close that loophole and ensure we amend the Residential Tenancies Act so that student rent or anywhere designated for student accommodation, whether on campus or privately, would list all mandatory charges”.
She said it would not include discretionary or optional charges but “those you can’t opt out of. That would protect students and help to keep rents down in a rental and cost of living crisis”.
She added: “There’s nothing stopping any provider from recovering these charges or including them in the price, but the legislation will ensure that it’s all included under rent.”
Harmon has asked the Minister to work with her on the legislation, which will not be in place for the upcoming academic year. She said, “it would add more teeth to what the Government is trying to do”.
USI, now called Amlé (Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn), has described the mandatory service fees as “bogus charges”.
DCU and the Department of Further and Higher Education have been contacted for comment.
