Tenancies board almost doubles agency staff to answer 'significantly high' number of calls

The RTB, which regulates the private rental sector in Ireland, has repeatedly issued statements in recent months apologising for the inconvenience caused to those seeking to make contact with its services.

The Residential Tenancies Board has said it almost doubled the number of agency staff in recent months as it struggles to meet the “significantly high” volume of calls it is receiving.

The RTB, which regulates the private rental sector in Ireland, has repeatedly issued statements in recent months apologising for the inconvenience caused to those seeking to make contact with its services.

According to its most recent annual report for 2020, it answered over 100,000 calls, received 96,000 emails and handled 68,000 queries over web chat in the space of one calendar year.

Also exacerbating the problem is a new software system for registering tenancies, which went live last November, that has led to complaints from landlords and letting agents who are experiencing problems with the new system. 

These complaints have included issues around transferring existing tenancies from the old system to the new one. Landlords who fail to register with the system will face late registration fees from August 3.

To try to address these issues, the RTB said it had worked with its contracted service provider to increase its staffing on the RTB account from 49 to 80 as of the end of June.

“This is in keeping with the contract which RTB has in place with our partner under which the contractor is expected to flexibly alter staffing as customer demand fluctuates,” a spokesperson said.

“Of the recent staff who joined the RTB account, 25% went to the front office managing calls and web-chats and 75% were placed to manage the various back-office areas of the RTB account (digital mailroom, email correspondence, etc).” 

It stressed these staff members were not public servants or RTB employees, and as demand for its service fluctuates, the number of staff it avails of will change accordingly.

It said delays in responding to customers had been hampered “like many operations by staffing shortages”.

As well as onboarding new staff, the RTB said it was implementing “various technical changes” to the online registration system which would ease some of the issues for landlords and letting agents.

Defending the performance of the RTB via parliamentary question, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said the RTB’s customer services teams were spending “considerable time with landlords supporting their transition over to the new system”.

“I am aware that some landlord and agent customers are encountering issues with the new RTB tenancy management system, but it is important that landlords and agents complete the process for account verification on the new system,” he said, in response to a parliamentary question.

Mr O’Brien said the RTB had also set up a short-term working group with the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers, which is meeting on a fortnightly basis to address the issues.