Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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530. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the estimates from his Department, the Private Residential Tenancies Board, the Revenue Commissioners, and the Department of Social Protection on the number of landlords unregistered with the board and the percentage of landlords this represents overall. [41223/15]

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 regulates the landlord-tenant relationship in the private rented residential sector and sets out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants. The Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) was established as an independent statutory body under the Act to operate a national tenancy registration system and to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants.

The Act provides that landlords in the sector must apply to register the tenancy of a dwelling with the PRTB within one month of the commencement of the tenancy. The PRTB actively pursues landlords for non-registration. Failure to register tenancies can result in prosecution with fines of up to €4,000 and/or six months imprisonment.

There are no comprehensive figures on the size of the sector but a report by DKM economic consultants commissioned by the PRTB and published last year reported an estimated 85% compliance rate in relation to the registration of tenancies. New information systems were introduced in early 2011 to facilitate registration enforcement and to help identify unregistered landlords. The PRTB receives information from a number of sources including the Department of Social Protection, local authorities and members of the public for this purpose.

Figures for the number of landlords (170,613) and the number of tenancies (323,062) registered have both increased in 2015 to date over the 2014 levels, suggesting that the compliance rate may have improved.

In 2014 the PRTB continued an active enforcement campaign against unregistered landlords. A total of 29,293 enforcement notices/solicitor warning letters issued to landlords and 21 District Court Summons were served on landlords who failed to register their tenancies with the PRTB.

Landlords of unregistered tenancies are precluded from referring a dispute to the PRTB. Non-registration does not affect tenant rights, and tenants have access to the dispute resolution service irrespective of whether the tenancy is registered or not.