Tenancies must now be registered annually with the RTB

The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) have this week announced that all landlords must register each tenancy with the RTB every year, commencing from 4 April. This must be 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.

There is a temporary registration fee waiver to those landlords who will have to register a ‘ Further Part Four’ tenancy. Tenancies that have a duration longer than six months are called ‘Part Four’ tenancies. Up to now in Ireland, tenancies either had a duration of four or six years, depending on when the tenancy started (tenancies which started after 24 December 2016 have a duration of six years).

ONLINE RESOURCES

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.

To further assist landlords in this changeover to annual registration, there will be a fourmonth transition period for tenancies which have renewal anniversaries between 4 April and 3 July 2022. This transition period ends on 3 August 2022.

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 4 August 2022, late fees will accumulate for every month that a landlord is late in registering a tenancy.

Once the fourmonth 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.