Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 192: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the instructions to community welfare officers regarding checking if properties are registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board, which is available on the published register on the Internet, before they approve a person for rental supplement; the number of rental supplements and the value of same to tenants who are in properties that are not registered with the PRTB; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13463/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, landlords are legally obliged to register tenancies with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB). The Act excludes the following types of tenancies:

1. Business premises, even where partly residential

2. A dwelling to which Part II of the Housing (Private Rented Dwellings) Act 1982 applies (i.e. formerly rent controlled dwelling occupied by the "original tenant" or his/her spouse) or to which Part II of the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980 applies (i.e. long occupation equity lease tenancies);

3. A dwelling let by a local authority or voluntary housing body;

4. A dwelling occupied under a shared ownership lease;

5. A holiday let;

6. A dwelling in which the landlord is also resident;

7. A dwelling in which the spouse, parent or child of the landlord is resident and there is no written lease or tenancy agreement;

8. A dwelling that is occupied rent free.

The Department is working with the PRTB to ensure that all tenancies where rent supplement is in payment, and are not excluded by the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, are registered with the PRTB. To that end, the Department provides details of rent supplement payments to the PRTB to enable them identify tenancies that are not registered and to take any follow-up action necessary.

Landlords are legally obliged to register any new tenancies, barring the exemptions listed above, with the PRTB within one month from the start date of a tenancy or at a later date on payment of an increased fee. Due to this time lag, that Landlords can legally register months after the tenancy comes into effect, it is not practicable for the Department to insist that a tenancy must be registered with the PRTB before payment of rent supplement is approved.

There are a number of tenancy types, e.g. renting a room, sharing a house with an owner occupier, that do attract rent supplement but are not required to be registered with the PRTB.

It is also possible that a tenancy may not yet legally exist (the person concerned has still not paid any rent or moved into the dwelling) when the decision to grant rent supplement has been made by the CWO.

Rent supplemented tenancies which are liable for registration with the PRTB, should be so registered. In that regard, the close working arrangements which the Department has with the PRTB should ensure that over time, all tenancies that come with the area of rent supplementation comply with the statutory system of tenancy regulation and safeguards. The Department, based on the above reasons, does not track tenancies where rent supplement is paid and are not registered with the PRTB.