The interim director of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), Owen Keegan, has stated that the time period taken to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants is excessively protracted. Currently, the dispute resolution times range from 9.3 weeks for mediation, 22 weeks for adjudication and 29 weeks for a tribunal hearing. Mr. Keegan, who is also a previous Dublin City Council chief executive, expressed hopes that by the initial quarter of next year, the disputes processing time could be cut to 16 weeks.
However, he pointed out to the Oireachtas Committee on Housing that achieving this goal was reliant on adequate resources to manage the growing caseload. Case referrals to the RTB showed an increase from 7,417 in 2022 to 9,908 the following year.
In 2021, the RTB redesigned its online registration system, but encountered significant issues in 2022 which hindered landlords from registering their tenancies. Mr. Keegan highlighted that over the past two years, substantial efforts were made to stabilize the system and enhance both user experience and data quality.
In May, the RTB board decided to invest €1.5 million in a new computer system capable of handling large databases and identifying cases that require investigation. Lucia Crimin, the RTB’s deputy director, explained that the system can analyse large datasets, such as individual Eircodes and the Residential Tenancies Register, indicating properties which have had a rent increase of over the allowed 2% per annum maximum. Additionally, the system can highlight properties where there were tenancies previously but haven’t been renewed annually.
The system may also identify landlords who report an income for a property that is not registered with the RTB, given the introduction of new data sharing permissions with Revenue. Ms. Crimin emphasised the necessity of the system in order to focus on relevant cases and assure compliance, as manually investigating every tenancy was deemed an inefficient use of resources.