Rental sector watchdog seeks greater powers to crack down on rogue landlords

Residential Tenancies Board director Rosemary Steen told the Oireachtas housing committee her organisation was considering calling for changes to legislation, including around its powers to inspect a property. Picture: Artur Widak/NurPhoto

The rental sector watchdog may need greater powers of inspection to crack down on landlords flouting their obligations, an Oireachtas Committee has heard.

Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) director Rosemary Steen told the Oireachtas housing committee her organisation was considering calling for changes to legislation, including around its powers to inspect a property.

She said she would like the RTB to be resourced to be able to "knock on doors" above and beyond its current powers. 

“That’s the next stage for this in terms of enforcement,” Ms Steen said. “It’s important for us in serious situations to have powers to investigate.” 

Queried about landlords leaving the market, Ms Steen said the number of registered tenancies had  increased in 2024 and “we’re not seeing that in terms of a high-level of exits as a result of the investigation work that’s under way”.

The RTB appeared before the committee along with representatives from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) to address the discrepancy in their data on how many households in Ireland are private renters.

Residential Tenancies Board director Rosemary Steen told the committee the watchdog had found some 1,500 landlords were claiming the Housing Assistance Payment (Hap) without registering their tenancy. Picture: Brian Lougheed

On Census night in 2022, there were a total of 330,632 properties that were being leased out to renters by private landlords, according to CSO data. This was far more than the RTB’s number for private rental tenancies registered at the end of 2022 at 246,453.

The CSO said research it had since undertaken had identified more than 25,000 formal rental arrangements which likely should be registered with the RTB but were not. However, a further 47,000 “informal” rental arrangements which may or may not need to be registered were also identified by the CSO.

Under legislation, landlords must register tenancies with the RTB or face a fine or potentially a criminal conviction.

In her opening statement, Ms Steen also said the watchdog had found some 1,500 landlords were claiming the Housing Assistance Payment (Hap) without registering their tenancy.

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

She added she wanted to use the full powers of the agency to “investigate and sanction, or to prosecute non-compliant landlords as required”.

Fielding questions from Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin, the Green Party’s Steven Matthews and Social Democrats’ Cian O’Callaghan, the RTB said it had received hundreds of referrals from members of the public so far this year regarding concerns over landlord registration.

Ms Steen said another factor they were considering was to increase the registration fee for landlords who do not initially register with the RTB as required. “It's one measure we’re considering to ensure there’s an incentive to register,” she said.

Its head of investigations and sanctions Emer Morrissey added a recently concluded case involving a landlord found to have “multiple breaches” of non-registration resulted in a financial sanction of €11,000.