Nursing homes

What are your obligations when running a nursing home under Irish consumer protection law?

These nursing home guidelines outline the key obligations and responsibilities for providers under Irish consumer protection law. Updated in 2023, the guidelines reflect the Consumer Rights Act 2022 and provide clear requirements for contract terms, fee increases, transparency, and consumer rights. Nursing home businesses must adhere to the latest consumer protection legislations to ensure your business operates within the law and to deliver transparent, fair services to residents to protect them and their families.

What key changes should you know about in the updated guidelines?

The 2023 update to the nursing home guidelines, following the Consumer Rights Act 2022, introduced several important changes:

• You must provide residents with at least 30 days’ notice before increasing care home fees.
• Certain contract terms are always considered unfair and must not be included in your agreements.
• You are required to provide clear, accessible information about your services and fees.
• Residents have the right to receive pre-contractual information about the main features of your care service, as well as clear cancellation rights.
• If your service is not in conformity with the contract, residents may have the right to withhold payment.

Are your contract terms transparent?

The trader has an obligation to ensure that the terms of a consumer contract are transparent.

Transparency means more than just concise, plain and intelligible language. The legibility of a written term (for example, whether there literally is small print), whether the consumer has had an opportunity to become acquainted with a term, whether an onerous or novel term has been brought to the consumer’s attention in such a way that they would be aware of the term, the costs or other financial consequences deriving from a term are among the matters which determine that a contract is transparent.

The nature of the subject matter of the contract, how the contract is communicated and presented to the consumer, the other terms of the contract, or any other contract, on which it is dependent, compliance with obligations regarding provision of information and all circumstances relating to the conclusion of the contract are considered in assessing transparency.

If a term is transparent and is not one of the terms listed in S. 132 of the Act which are always unfair, or Part 1 of Schedule 5 of the Act which are presumed unfair, then it may be unlikely to be deemed unfair.

How do these guidelines affect your contracts and business practices?

Under Section 90 of the Consumer Protection Act 2007, these guidelines are admissible in court proceedings. If a provision of the guidelines is relevant to a legal question, it may be considered in determining the outcome. This means your contracts and business practices must align with the guidelines to avoid legal challenges.

Where can you find the full guidelines?

You can download a printable PDF of the nursing home guidelines.