Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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397. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the progress made in ensuring that landlords in the private sector comply with standard safety regulations; if any landlords have been struck off the Private Residential Tenancies Board; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39435/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Minimum standards for rental accommodation are prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008, and the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) (Amendment) Regulations 2009 made under section 18 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992. These standards represent a significant improvement on those previously in place since 1993 and the revisions took account of comfort, hygiene and safety issues. The standards specify requirements in relation to a range of matters such as structural repair, sanitary facilities, heating, ventilation, natural light and safety of gas and electrical supply.

Following the enactment of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, local authorities have a strengthened, updated legislative and regulatory framework available to them which provides for the issuing of Improvement Notices and Prohibition Notices where landlords are in breach of their obligations under the regulations, and fines for continuing non-compliance with the regulations have also been significantly increased.

Section 34 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992 as amended by the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 , provides that any person who by act or omission, obstructs an authorised person in the lawful exercise of the powers in, or contravenes a provision of, or a regulation made under, section 17, 18 or 20 of the 1992 Act, or fails to comply with an improvement notice, or re-lets a house in breach of a prohibition notice, is guilty of an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding €5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or both. If the obstruction, contravention, failure to comply or re-letting is continued after conviction the person is guilty of a further offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding €400 for each day of the offence under that Act.

All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties comply with these regulations. Responsibility for enforcing the regulations rests with the relevant local authority, supported by a dedicated stream of funding provided from part of the proceeds of tenancy registration fees collected by the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB).

It is a matter for each individual local authority to decide the specific details of its enforcement strategy and inspection arrangements. However, in discharging their responsibilities in relation to the rental sector, authorities have been asked to have regard to the Good Practice Guidelines for Local Authorities on Standards in the Private Rented Sector: Strategic Planning, Effective Enforcement published by the Centre for Housing Research in November 2007, which make a range of recommendations on relevant issues, including targeting inspection activities.

Details of the number of inspections carried out and the a mounts paid to each local authority are available on my Department's website . In general, local authorities have significantly expanded their inspection activity with the number of inspections growing from 6,815 in 2005 to 19,616 in 2012.

Under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, landlords are required to apply to the PRTB to register a tenancy within one month of the commencement of the tenancy. The tenancy registration remains valid for the length of the tenancy, subject to a maximum of four years, and an existing tenancy must be re-registered where it has lasted more than four years. As landlords themselves are not registered with the PRTB the issue of striking off does not arise.