In yesterday's Joint Oireachtas Housing Committee, Deputy Duffy raised several issues with the Residential Tenancies Board. In particular, he highlighted the number of illegal termination notices that were issued between July 2022 and September 2022.
Transcript:
Deputy Duffy:
Thank you chair.
As always, I'd like to thank the witnesses from the RTB for the work you do. I understand your remit has and is evolving which brings all ends of demands on the organisation. I have two questions:
Firstly, according to Threshold, between July and September in 2022, 46% of termination notices raised to Threshold were invalid and illegal. That's almost half of the notices they received. Since July 2022, there is a requirement for the landlord to send a copy of all notices of termination to the RTB on the same day, as the notice is served to the tenant.
So my question here would be how did this number of illegal notices get through the RTB, if it did, and can you speak to that anomaly? If there is an internal problem or not and is the board actually addressing the issue, if it is an issue for the board.
RTB:
So, in relation to the requirements you mentioned, since July, a landlord is obliged to send a copy of the notice of termination to the RTB which we receive in, and we will be reporting on them in terms of the reasons that have been given.
Just in relation to the validity of the notice - subject to correction - we're not validating those. If a tenant has a reason to believe that there is an issue with the notice, they can come to the RTB and dispute that, raise a dispute in relation to the validity of that notice with the landlord and the RTB, through the dispute resolution service, can then find if the notice is invalid. If that notice is invalid, that will be the outcome of the dispute that the tenant
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