Nine landlords have been sanctioned by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) for “improper conduct” such as breaches of limits on rent in rent pressure zones.
Of the sanctions published on the RTB website on Wednesday, the highest fine issued to a landlord was €2,684. The landlord in Dublin 18 was required to pay the fine as a result of failing to comply with rent pressure zone requirements.
A landlord in Dunboyne received the second highest fine at €2,514 for both failure to comply with rent pressure zone requirements and failure to register.
Some smaller fines were issued while other landlords simply received written cautions.
If rental law has not been complied with, landlords may be subject to regulatory action by the RTB, including potential investigation and potential sanction.
More than €300,000 in overcharged rent has been returned to tenants by landlords and almost €38,000 in sanctions has been paid by landlords to date as a result of the RTB’s investigation activities since 2019.
The board may commence an investigation, either as a result of information received from members of the public, or as a result of information gathered from records it has access to under the Residential Tenancies Act.
This includes the RTB’s register of tenancies, information received under data sharing agreements with other public bodies, as well as open-source data such as rental websites.
The RTB currently has a pipeline of more than 440 investigations which have commenced and are at varying stages of the investigations process.
It prioritises allegations of breaches of rent pressure zone restrictions.
To date, more than 90 per cent of sanctions for improper conduct by landlords are for breaches of rent pressure zone limits.