The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB ) has confirmed that all landlords must register each tenancy with the RTB every year, the registration being completed within one month of the anniversary of when the tenancy began.
Landlords of private rented accommodation, social housing provided by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs ) and landlords of Student Specific Accommodation (SSA ) have always been required to register their tenancies with the RTB within one month of a tenancy starting. Previously, tenancies were only required to be re-registered if a tenancy continued into a ‘Further Part 4’ tenancy.
With the introduction of annual registration, the RTB’s online registration system will notify landlords in advance of the yearly anniversary of when the tenancy started, to ensure they register on time and, thereby, avoid late fees. It is important to note that reminder notices will be issued to the existing correspondence details held and landlords must ensure that they keep their details up to date with the RTB.
The RTB has created several online resources, including webpages, FAQs and ‘how to’ guides to help landlords understand what is required with annual registration. Landlords can find more information about how to register annually on the RTB website at www.rtb.ie/annual-registration The cost to register tenancies will be €40 per year for private rentals, cost rentals and Student Specific Accommodation (SSA ) rentals. The yearly fee for tenancies managed by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs ) will be €20 per year. There will be a fee waiver for those landlords who currently have a ‘Further Part 4’ tenancy in place (more information in Editor’s Notes ).
To further assist landlords in this changeover to annual registration, there will be a four-month transition period for tenancies which have renewal anniversaries between April 4 and July 3 2022. This transition period ends on 3 August 2022.
The introduction of annual registration will:
Enable the RTB to regulate the sector more effectively.
Provide the RTB with more up to date information on tenancies and on the operation of the residential rental sector, thus providing more accurate data to help inform rental policy development and implementation; and
Allow the RTB to publish more detailed reports on rents and rent levels for new and existing tenancies. The current Rent Index quarterly publication only covers new tenancies registered with the RTB.
A core statutory function of the RTB is to ensure that what should be registered is registered. It is important to note this new law also introduces a new ‘late fee’ structure. This means that as from August 4 2022, late fees will accumulate for every month that a landlord is late in registering a tenancy.
Once the four-month transition period expires, landlords who do not register annually will incur late fees of €10 for every month the registration fee is late (for private, cost rental and SSA rentals ) and €5 per month for AHB tenancies.
If late fees are not paid, landlords could incur a fine of €4,000 and/or civil sanctions of up to €15,000 plus costs of up to €15,000.
