Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 June 2022
465. Deputy Seán Canney asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the Residential Tenancies Board is requesting landlords to provide personal details such as date of birth, PPSN and photo ID when registering; the purpose of collecting this personal information; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28903/22]
View answerThe Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was established as a quasi-judicial independent statutory body under the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2021 (RTA), to operate a national tenancy registration system and to facilitate the resolution of disputes between landlords and tenants.
Section 134 of the RTA requires a landlord to apply to the RTB to register a tenancy of a dwelling within one month of its commencement. All private landlords, Approved Housing Bodies and providers of Student Specific Accommodation are required to register their tenancies with the RTB. This allows the RTB to collect and provide definitive data on the rental sector and for transparency through the public register of tenancies; thus, enabling a better understanding of the sector.
Section 136 of the RTA requires, inter alia, that when a landlord is registering a tenancy with the RTB, ‘the name, address where the landlord ordinarily resides, any other address for correspondence the landlord may wish to provide and the personal public service number (if any) of the landlord and, where the application is made by his or her authorised agent, the name, address for correspondence and personal public service number (if any) of the agent’, and ’such other matters as may be prescribed’, must be provided as part of the application process.
The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 (Prescribed Forms) Regulations 2022 sets out the prescribed form to be completed by landlords when applying to register a tenancy in compliance with section 134 of the RTA, which includes a requirement for the landlords date of birth.
Following the passing of legislation in 2019, with effect from 4 April 2022, landlords are required to register their tenancies with the RTB every year, within one month of the anniversary of when the tenancy began. This applies to both new and existing tenancies. To further assist landlords in this changeover to annual registration, there is a four-month transition period for tenancies which commence or have renewal anniversaries between 4 April and 3 July 2022. This transition period ends on 3 August 2022.
For data protection reasons, the names of landlords and tenants are not published on the RTB’s public register of tenancies.
Should further information be required by the Deputy, the RTB set up a dedicated email address for this purpose and may be contacted at OireachtasMembersQueries@rtb.ie.
