Magazine Rd residents hit out at rental sector watchdog

Community who highlighted unregistered rentals say they got no response from RTB

Resident's protest at Magazine Road, Cork City on Friday afternoon. Picture: Larry Cummins

Residents living near UCC who have been campaigning for tighter controls on rogue landlords have lashed out at the sector’s watchdog.

The Magazine Road and Surrounding Area Residents' Association has written to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) accusing it of being reactive, and not proactive when it comes to enforcing the registration of rented properties, and calling for an overhaul of its complaints procedure which they say is stacked against complainants.

The association's research has found that, of the 240 rented properties in their area, 143 appeared not to be registered with the RTB, resulting in a potential loss to the exchequer of just over €53,000 a year.

Only two summonses in the last year

There have only been two summonses for non-registration of rented properties in Cork in the last year.

“The neglect by landlords in Cork City ignoring the statutory requirement to register their properties, and the lack of enforcement by the RTB has resulted in our community being left as victims,” they said.

Our quality of life and the enjoyment of our homes has been left dependent on the personality of the landlord along with the door of the RTB being closed to us. This is totally unacceptable. 

It comes days after Taoiseach Micheál Martin said there is no reason why the RTB should not be more proactive when it comes to enforcement.

“The RTB should be very proactive on that front — there is no reason why they shouldn’t be," the Taoiseach said: 

That’s its role. That’s its function, and it has the resources to do that. 

It has been a legal requirement since 2004 for landlords to register all tenancies with the RTB.

However, in 2017, the residents’ group found that of 135 rented properties, 93 appeared not to be registered with the RTB.

They said they forwarded this information by registered post to the RTB but never got an acknowledgement or a reply.

RTB confirms recent referrals

The RTB said it takes the matter of unregistered tenancies very seriously. 

"The RTB can confirm a number of referrals have been recently made to the RTB’s registration enforcement unit in relation to the Cork addresses referred to," a spokesperson said.

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After the high-profile Covid-19 lockdown house parties in the area last year, the residents undertook another sample check of the rented properties in the area.

57% of rentals apparently unregistered 

This time, they found that out of 250 rented properties, a staggering 143 appear not to be registered with the RTB.

The residents' association said many of the unregistered properties identified in 2017 appear on the 2021 list, and continued: 

This non-compliance by landlords has serious consequences for the tenants, us neighbours and the local community on issues of management, maintenance, health and safety, upkeep of standards of the property and antisocial behaviour. 

“This results in totally unacceptable delays of many months in complaints being dealt with by the RTB.

“If a complaint is submitted to the RTB and the property is found not to be registered, it must first be pursued by the RTB before any dispute resolution can be dealt with. The non-registration by landlords also results in delays of enforcement of their duty of care to neighbouring properties.

Residents criticise RTB's response

“In the interest of fairness, transparency, and traceability and best practice, we believe regardless of whether a property is registered or not, that all correspondence from a third party should be assigned a tracking number when received by the RTB.

“It is not in keeping with a duty of care to a third party, that in the event of a complaint being received by RTB relating to an unregistered property, the complainant is advised that they should check the website over the coming months to determine if the property is registered and then resubmit their third party complaint.

This puts all the responsibility of progressing complaints back on the third party.  

“The 2017 RTB Annual Report states that the Minister for Housing had earlier announced a new plan that would see the RTB move to be a proactive rental sector regulator with new powers and resources to take on this responsibility.

“In 2021 the RTB remains a reactive body with little or no proactive enforcement of ensuring privately rented properties(HMOs) are registered.