FAQ
The questions landlords actually ask before engaging Shelter. The questions journalists ask. All of them, answered honestly.
We've grouped the questions in the order they tend to come up in real consults — what is this, is it legal, what does it cost, what if X happens. If your question isn't here, the contact form is the place. We answer every enquiry within 24 hours.
An advisory and project-management service for Irish landlords with overholding tenants, rent arrears, anti-social tenancies, or breach-of-obligations cases. Three productised packs: Cash-for-Keys Negotiation (€1,500), RTB Acceleration Pack (€2,000), and Documentation & Evidence Service (available on request). National coverage. Single point of contact per case.
No. We are project managers and advocates. Drafting, evidence work, and RTB advocacy are not reserved legal practice in Ireland — non-solicitors can lawfully do them. For anything that needs litigation in the Circuit Court or higher, we hand off to our partner solicitor. Every formal document we draft is reviewed by our partner solicitor before filing.
No. Shelter.ie has no affiliation with Shelter (UK), Threshold, or any housing-rights organisation. We are a private commercial service for landlord clients.
We launched in 2026. The team has been doing landlord-side work in various forms — RTB advocacy, debt recovery, property management — for the past decade. The brand and the productised structure are new; the underlying expertise isn't.
Yes, every part of it. The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 governs the formal RTB process; non-solicitor representation at adjudication and tribunal is permitted. Negotiated end-of-tenancy by deed of surrender (cash-for-keys) is well-established Irish landlord-tenant law. PSA-licensed surveillance is regulated activity but legal when done by a licensed PI for a lawful purpose, which evidence in tenancy proceedings is.
Not on anything Shelter does. Our engagement letter explicitly prohibits client landlords from instructing us to do, recommend, or facilitate any conduct that could constitute harassment under section 10 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, criminal damage, illegal eviction, or interference with peaceful occupation under the Residential Tenancies Act. If a client insists, we refuse and document the refusal. Marketing copy may be punchy; the product is lawful.
The €20,000 cap applies to damages claims in the RTB. Arrears claims are separately calculated up to the statutory two-year window (max €27,600 at typical rents). For losses above either cap, the route is civil court proceedings via our partner solicitor — different forum, different costs, different timeline.
Yes. Our legal basis for processing tenant data is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR — legitimate interests of the landlord client. We've completed a Data Protection Impact Assessment, hold a documented balancing test, and operate to a data-retention policy. Tenants can exercise their rights via privacy@shelter.ie. See our Privacy Notice.
No. Engagements are confidential. Our public case studies are sourced from public-record RTB determinations and Irish press articles — none of them are Shelter clients. When we land paying clients whose cases close successfully, we'd ask their consent before featuring them; we don't publish without consent.
That's what the free 15-minute consult is for. Roughly: Cash-for-Keys for early-stage cases where the tenant might engage; RTB Acceleration for hostile, large-arrears, or formal-process-required cases; Documentation & Evidence as a retainer alongside Acceleration where the case turns on evidence the landlord can't easily assemble alone. About 1 in 5 consult callers gets told that none of the three fits and they need a solicitor instead.
Cash-for-Keys: 4–6 weeks typical. RTB Acceleration: 6–10 months for a clean case to vacant possession + arrears award; 14–20 months if it goes to tribunal and then to court enforcement. Documentation & Evidence: runs as long as the case does. The honest version: nothing in the RTB system is fast in absolute terms. We make sure the time isn't wasted on procedural errors, but we can't shorten the queue.
No, and any service that does is misleading you. RTB tribunals are statutory bodies whose decisions we don't control. What we guarantee is the quality of the work — properly drafted notices, complete evidence bundles, professional advocacy — and a flat fee that doesn't grow if the case is harder than expected.
Yes. RTB cases run nationally; our advocates appear at adjudications and tribunals wherever they're scheduled. Site visits to your property (for Cash-for-Keys handovers, evidence work, etc.) are typically Dublin/Leinster same-day, Munster/Connacht/Ulster scheduled. No regional surcharge.
Yes. €1,500 / €2,000 / €750 setup + €250 monthly are the prices. The only billable items on top are: (a) RTB filing fees (€15 for adjudication, €100 for tribunal — paid by you to the RTB directly); (b) PSA-licensed PI surveillance work (billed by the PI partner directly to you, scope agreed in advance); (c) court enforcement costs if the case escalates beyond the RTB. We don't add hourly billing on our side at any point.
The 15-minute consult is free. If we tell you no pack fits, you owe nothing. If we open a Cash-for-Keys negotiation and the tenant refuses to engage at all (rare), we charge €500 of the €1,500 to cover work done and refund the rest.
Shelter.ie is currently below the VAT registration threshold. If that changes, prices remain flat — we absorb VAT on existing engagements rather than mark them up.
Document immediately — dated photographs, video, written record, contractor estimates if needed. Notify the RTB if proceedings are live; brief us so we can incorporate the breach into the case. Do NOT attempt to evict the tenant in response — that's the Hoxha case in miniature. The legal route is breach of obligations + RTB Acceleration.
The Residential Tenancies Act doesn't carve out tenants with children from the standard process, but adjudicators do consider the practical impact of orders. Cash-for-keys settlements are higher when there are children involved (the tenant needs more to relocate); RTB applications are more careful to document the underlying breach so the determination is on the merits, not on hardship. We don't recommend pretending children don't exist when crafting the case.
Then this is more painful than a normal eviction, and we'll be honest about that in the consult. Cash-for-Keys is usually the right pack for these cases — the relationship matters and the formal RTB route can be the end of it. We've seen these cases before. They're worth getting professional help on.
That's a different pack — post-tenancy debt recovery. We can run that as a special-case engagement (typically a hybrid of judgment-mortgage application via partner solicitor + Stubbs Gazette listing + collections referral). Email hello@shelter.ie and we'll quote.
Deliberate brand-distinction. The Irish housing charity is Threshold. Shelter (UK) doesn't operate in Ireland under that name. The .ie domain was available; the contrarian nominal — using a word charities have claimed and turning it on its head — fits the brand voice. Our visual identity (deep teal + Cormorant Garamond + private-club aesthetic) is deliberately distinct from any charity's look. Footer disclaimers on every page make the non-affiliation explicit.
Not at the time of writing. If they do, we'll respond constructively — we're not trying to free-ride on their reputation; we're operating in a substantively different commercial niche with explicit disclaimers. We've done a trademark clearance review with our solicitor before launch.
You probably wandered here from a Google search. We're not the side of the dispute that helps tenants. The right place to call is Threshold — the Irish national housing charity for tenants. Their freephone helpline is 1800 454 454 (Mon–Fri 9am to 9pm). They give free, confidential advice on notice of termination, deposit retention, illegal eviction, harassment by landlords, RTB process, rent reviews, and access to HAP. Their website is threshold.ie. They're good at what they do.
If you've come here looking to understand what your landlord might be planning, that's also a legitimate reason to read the site — the services pages tell you what's coming and what to expect. The case studies on this site are sourced from public record and may help you understand how cases like yours have resolved historically. Just don't email us asking us to take your side. We won't, and Threshold will help you better than we could anyway.
Email us, or book a free 15-minute consult to discuss your specific case.
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