Landlords Take Note: Tenancies Must Now be Registered Annually with the RTB

4 April 2022: Today, the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) announced that from 4 April 2022, all landlords must register each tenancy with the RTB every year. 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.  

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 4 April and 3 July 2022. This transition period ends on 3 August 2022.

The introduction of annual registration will:

Niall Byrne, Director of the RTB, commented today:

“Today, we are asking landlords to take note of the introduction of ‘Annual Registration’. This is an important and necessary change to the law which enables the RTB to collect more timely and accurate data on the residential rental sector. This data will strengthen the ability of the RTB to fulfil its statutory and regulatory functions in a more responsive and effective manner. The data insights and information will also help inform the development of rental sector policy.

“I would encourage landlords, if you haven’t done so already, to create an account on our new online tenancy registration system. So, when the time comes for you to register your tenancy annually, all your tenancy details will be up to date, which will help streamline the process. Landlords will receive a reminder notification from the RTB one month before the renewal date of each tenancy, once their tenancy details are updated with us.”

He continued:

“To support landlords to comply with the changes to registration, the RTB has developed a range of useful information resources and online material, such as new webpages and Frequently-Asked-Questions. Information sessions will also be taking place as a further support to landlords.”

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 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.  

ENDS  

NOTES TO EDITOR

Helpful Resources

The RTB has created helpful material and resources to support landlords with Annual Registration. More information can be found by clicking on the below links:

Legislation

Annual Registration is being introduced as required by The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019.

Temporary Registration Fee Waiver

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).

Once the six years is due to expire, landlords can renew their tenancy registration and this renewed tenancy is known as a ‘Further Part Four’ tenancy. Landlords in these scenarios will be exempt from having to pay an annual registration fee for the portion of the tenancy remaining in their ‘Part Four’ tenancy, i.e. if there are three years left on the ‘Further Part Four’ tenancy, then the landlord would be exempt from paying an annual registration fee for those three years. However, please note that even though these landlords will be exempt from paying yearly registration fees, they will still be required to register their tenancy annually once they applied to register the ‘Further Part Four’ tenancy on or before 3 April 2022 and paid the required fee by midnight 3 May 2022.

Fees for Annual Registration

Private/Student Specific Accommodation (SSA)/Cost Rental Tenancies

Standard Registration Fee

Application made to the RTB within one month of the tenancy commencement date 

€40

Additional Late Fee

Application made to the RTB more than one month after the tenancy commencement date

€10 for every month (part thereof) that registration is late

Composite Registration Fee

A reduced fee in respect of an application made to the RTB, within one month of the earliest tenancy commencement date, to register a maximum of 10 tenancies in one building by the same landlord at the same time

€170

2nd Registration or Subsequent in a 12-month period

No fee applies to the 2nd and subsequent registration in a 12-month period in respect of the same dwelling, providing the applications are made to the RTB within one month of the tenancy commencement date of the new tenancy 

No Fee

Approved Housing Body (AHB) Tenancies

Standard Registration Fee

Application made to the RTB within one month of the tenancy commencement date 

€20

Additional Late Fee

Application made to the RTB more than one month after the tenancy commencement date

€5 for every month (part thereof) that registration is late

Composite Registration Fee

A reduced fee in respect of an application made to the RTB, within one month of the earliest tenancy commencement date, to register a maximum of 10 tenancies in one building by the same landlord at the same time.

€85

2nd Registration or Subsequent in a 12-month period

No fee applies to the 2nd and subsequent registration in a 12-month period in respect of the same dwelling, providing the applications are made to the RTB within one month of the tenancy commencement date of the new tenancy 

No Fee

What is needed to register

The following information is required in order to register a tenancy:

Landlords can register online here www.rtb.ie/portal