Landlords fined for not registering rental property

Landlords fined for not registering rental property

There have been 22 convictions for not registering rental property since the start of the year.  Landlords have been fined over €107,000 for these breaches including legal costs.  It is surprising that Landlords are still not registering their rental property and ending up in court.  It cost €90.00 to register a property and can be done online or by completing the registration form.

A landlord, if convicted under the Residential Tenancies Act (2004) for failing to comply with a notice, faces a fine of up to €4,000 and/or six months’ imprisonment along with a daily fine of €250 for a continuing offence.

Many of the landlords convicted had tenants who were in receipt of rent supplement. The PRTB have many ways to identify rental property.  They are co-operating with Local Authorities and the Department of Social Protection to help identify landlords.

Although there is a lot of frustration with the PRTB from landlords, rental property must be registered by each landlord.  The length of time it takes to deal with a claim is long than the old system through the courts, which used to take 6 months.  Now 6 months seems short compared to the time it is taking now.

Tenants can continue to withhold rent while a landlord is waiting for the PRTB to deal with a case. What can happen in many cases is the PRTB find in favour of the landlord but the landlord never gets this money from the tenant. The landlord and the PRTB have to pursue the tenant in court. If a tenant is to stay in a property while waiting for a case to be heard, they should have to pay the rent. If they do not pay the rent, they should have to vacate the property.  The system needs to be fair to both sides.