THE NUMBER of tenants in rent arrears has increased significantly this year, prompting a 66 per cent rise in dispute cases taken by landlords to the Private Residential Tenancies Board on the issue.
The board, which is the regulator of the private rental sector,said yesterday it had received 660 applications for dispute resolution from landlords due to rent arrears so far this year, compared with 400 applications during 2009.
A spokeswoman for the board said the big increase was probably due to the recession, which was making it more difficult for some tenants to keep up rent payments.
The board disclosed the figures as it announced that two landlords had been convicted for failing to register their tenancies with the regulator as part of a new campaign designed to improve compliance in the private rented sector.
The convictions were secured by the board in the District Court last week. They represent only the second successful prosecution against landlords for failing to register their tenancies since the board was set up in 2004.
William Buckley, Cedarwood Park, Newbridge, Co Kildare, was fined €1,100 and had €2,129.10 in legal costs awarded against him.
Gavan Doyle, Dalton Mews, Malahide, Co Dublin, was fined €3,000 for failing to register a tenancy in Blanchardstown, Dublin. Legal costs of €3,458.50 were awarded against him by the court.
“Up to now we have had to use manual processes to track down landlords that have not registered with us, but we have a new IT system in place that makes it more efficient to track people,” said the spokeswoman. She said the board intended to focus more effort in tracking down unregistered landlords and that it had written 14,000 enforcement letters to landlords over the past six years. She said a lack of available staff had made it difficult to track landlords and initiate prosecutions.
The board was able to track the two landlords convicted of failing to register last week by cross-checking records held by the Department of Social Protection for the payment of rent supplement. Failure to comply with the law on registering with the board can result in fines of up to €3,000 and/or six month imprisonment.
The board has recently introduced an online system for registering tenancies at www.prtb.ie
So far this year landlords and tenants have made 1,842 applications for dispute resolution to the board. The spokeswoman said this represented a 19 per cent increase on the number of applications in the first 10 months of 2009.