Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This relates to section 15 of the Bill, which amends section 137 of the 2004 Act, which provides for tenancy registration fees in respect of private tenancies. The Bill amends the existing registration fees to reflect the new requirement to register tenancies on an annual basis. These amendments to section 15 of the Bill are required on foot of the application of the Act to the student-specific accommodation sector. The opportunity has been taken to better refine the text of section 137 of the 2004 Act. The key changes are as follows. Section 137(1) is amended to provide that following the move to annual registration, a fee of €40 will apply to a tenancy registration upon commencement and on an annual basis thereafter. The current registration fee is €90 upon commencement of the tenancy. The RTB will continue to have the power under section 138(1) of the Act to vary the registration fee in line with changes in the value of money. The new section 137(1)(b) provides that the registration fee for the tenancy in the student-specific accommodation sector will be €40 immediately from the application of the Act of 2004 to that sector, which is likely to predate the move to annual registration. The registration fee relating to that sector will remain at €40 following the general move to annual registration.

Section 137(4) of the 2004 Act, which deals with the single registration fee that applies where a landlord simultaneously applies to register up to ten tenancies in dwellings comprising the same property, for example, up to ten apartments in the same apartment block, is also amended. In line with section 15 of the Bill, following the move to annual registration, the single registration fee payable in such circumstances will be €170 both upon tenancy commencement and upon subsequent annual registrations. The amendment applies a single fee for tenancy registrations in respect of student-specific accommodation tenancy registrations in such circumstances but immediately from the date of the application of the Act of 2004 to that sector. As I have stated, this is likely to predate the general move to annual registration. The single fee for tenancy registrations in such circumstances will not change for the student-specific sector upon the move to annual registration.

Government amendment No. 80 gets into late registration, which we might come to separately.