RTB will pursue 1,500 landlords who accept HAP payments on unregistered tenancies

TDs and senators on the Oireachtas housing committee will hear on Tuesday about the RTB's campaign to invite landlords to comply with HAP registration, and to prosecute those who do not comply. Stock picture: Pexels

The Residential Tenancies Board has found that 1,500 landlords were claiming the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) without registering their tenancy. 

The new director of the RTB, Rosemary Steen, is due to tell TDs and senators on Tuesday that work is ongoing to improve the detection of unregistered tenancies.

Ms Steen will highlight that the RTB identified 1,500 HAP records with no matching registration, which is against the law.

Landlords are required to register their tenancies with the RTB or can face civil or criminal sanction, with fines ranging up to €15,000 for failure to comply.

Non-compliant landlords to be prosecuted  

The RTB has launched a campaign to write to those identified to provide them with an opportunity to register their tenancy.

The agency will write to landlords on two occasions, and if a landlord fails to comply after the second notice, they will be subject to prosecution.

“Our message is quite simple — we will help and facilitate all those who wish to be compliant to do so,” Ms Steen will tell an Oireachtas committee on Tuesday.

Residential Tenancies Board director Rosemary Steen will tell TDs and senators that 'public information campaigns play an important role in achieving compliance and avoiding any suggestion of a lack of knowledge or awareness'. File picture: Brian Lougheed

“For those who remain non-compliant, we will use all of our significant powers to identify such landlords and enforce the regulations.”

The new RTB director will also say that she wants to use the full powers of the agency to “investigate and sanction, or to prosecute non-compliant landlords as required”.

The appearance of the RTB before the Oireachtas housing committee comes months after the CSO found that up to 25,248 tenancies that should be registered were not.

Ms Steen will tell the committee that the CSO is unable to provide a list of potentially non-compliant landlords, but that they highlighted a number of geographic areas where there is a high percentage of non-compliance.

Clare, Cavan, Donegal, Galway, and Monaghan targeted

“These areas, which include counties Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Galway, and Clare, will be targeted as part of a new RTB registration compliance campaign between November 2024 and March 2025,” Ms Steen will say.

“Last week, I wrote to the chief executives of these local authorities to request their support in planning and delivering a public information campaign to encourage landlords to register tenancies in their area.

“While our primary concern is the 25,248 possible formal rental arrangements that should be registered with the RTB, these compliance campaigns will also target areas where informal rental arrangements are prevalent. 

It is important to underline that our primary objective is to reach full compliance in everybody’s best interest. 

"Therefore, public information campaigns play an important role in achieving compliance and avoiding any suggestion of a lack of knowledge or awareness.”

The research found that there were 47,754 possible informal rental arrangements.

It found that informal letting arrangements were most likely to be seen in predominantly rural areas.

Additionally, those living in informal arrangements were paying, on average, 30% less rent than those in formal arrangements.

Informal letting arrangements were also more likely to be in detached houses, while also being less likely to be unrelated to one another.

However, the CSO said certain informal rental arrangements may fall outside the scope of the Residential Tenancies Board, including in situations where a property is let out to a relative or if no rent is charged.