My Landlord isn't Registered With RTB; I Need Letter for Grant from RTB

Urethra Franklin.

So I've been house sharing for the past year, my name is on the lease. This lease has been let to the same tenants for years. I am applying to go back to college and I need to prove I am an independent student, I.e. I don't live with parents. I can only do this via: 'A letter confirming that the address is registered with Residential Tenancies Board (RTB)'. I just checked the address and it turns out it's not registered! I know this is illegal and I'm shocked, the same house has been let out for about a decade, if not more, and has always flown under the radar without being registered! IDK what I can do from here. I cannot go to college without the grant!!!!!! Anyone any idea on anything I can do?

Edit: I contacted the landlord and they told me they don't want to go 'through the fuss of doing that'. It should be a letter they already have when/if they first registered with the RTB at the beginning of the lease, so I imagine they actually don't have a letter, it probably helps that the landlord actually lives abroad, his family kind of looks after the house, so any income he received from renting probably wasnt spotted due to the money being transferred to an international bank account. IDK what I should do....I might contact RTB and see if they will issue me a letter, seeing as the landlord wont do it, as a tenant I am entitled to the letter also as I understand it, but if the house actually isnt registered I imagine the landlord will end up in big big trouble if the RTB finds out that the property is not registered. 4k in fines and 6 months in prison, with additional levies for every day the property wasnt registered....10+ years worth of days, thats nearly 100k. Also....IDK, maybe there would be an issue of tax evasion too? Also n regards to Mrs. O'Bumbles comment....the landlord has been letting out the property for about a decade, if not more. Whilst the database is out of date....would it be 10 years out of date?

Mrs OBumble

The database on their website is notoriously out of date - first step is to contact them to double check.

The next is to talk to your landlord: you're likely the first student-resident to have this issue there.

RachEv

Hi
Be careful if your landlord lives abroad. You are liable for withholding a certain amount of money in tax and you can end up owing this back to revenue.

FishOnABike

RachEv wrote: »

Hi
Be careful if your landlord lives abroad. You are liable for withholding a certain amount of money in tax and you can end up owing this back to revenue.

This. Do you pay rent directly into the landlord's foreign account or do you pay it into an Irish account belonging to one of his family wh in turn then forward it to him?

agoodpunt

grant needs RTB? how about a letter from the LL dont worry about reg you are entitled to rights once you are in a tenacy from LL or agent LL can also reg anytime just pay a late fee

Urethra Franklin.

FishOnABike wrote: »

This. Do you pay rent directly into the landlord's foreign account or do you pay it into an Irish account belonging to one of his family wh in turn then forward it to him?

When I moved in the same tenants had been living there for a few years. They just told me I transfer the rent money into their bank account and then they transfer the money into his. I have no idea if his account is Irish or international. I am almost definitely sure it goes into his however.

agoodpunt wrote: »

grant needs RTB? how about a letter from the LL dont worry about reg you are entitled to rights once you are in a tenacy from LL or agent LL can also reg anytime just pay a late fee

The issue is black and white. SUSI needs a letter from the RTB. Not a lease, not a letter from the landlord, not bank statements, not official documents I have with the rental address printed on it. They will ONLY accept a letter from the RTB.

dennyk

Urethra Franklin. wrote: »

When I moved in the same tenants had been living there for a few years. They just told me I transfer the rent money into their bank account and then they transfer the money into his. I have no idea if his account is Irish or international. I am almost definitely sure it goes into his however.


The issue is black and white. SUSI needs a letter from the RTB. Not a lease, not a letter from the landlord, not bank statements, not official documents I have with the rental address printed on it. They will ONLY accept a letter from the RTB.

Unfortunately there's not a lot you can do here. You can report the landlord to the RTB for failure to register, but that isn't likely to help your grant situation unless somehow things with the RTB move fast enough that they scare the landlord into registering before the SUSI deadline (which is unlikely). You don't have any way to force the landlord to register the tenancy for the purpose of your grant, unfortunately.

You have some other potential issues as well. You're paying rent to another tenant, not to the landlord directly; technically that either makes you a licensee of that other tenant, or that puts you in arrears as you haven't been paying any money to the landlord. Either way, it could be used as a pretext to kick you out of the place with relatively short notice. You might be able to successfully fight it in the end, but it will be a lot of time and hassle, and it's possible you might end up without a place to live for a while in the meantime.

Also, if your name is actually on the lease and the money is going directly to the landlord living abroad (and not to their family here in Ireland who is acting as their agent), when Revenue get wind of the landlord's likely tax evasion, it will be you (and your fellow tenants) that they will come after for the tax your landlord owes, unless your other tenant has been properly withholding the required 20% and remitting that to Revenue. You might want to check with the tenant you're paying about the situation there, because it would suck if you end up getting a giant unpaid tax bill as a reward for exposing your landlord's shenanigans to the authorities (on top of getting no SUSI grant).

agoodpunt wrote: »

grant needs RTB? how about a letter from the LL dont worry about reg you are entitled to rights once you are in a tenacy from LL or agent LL can also reg anytime just pay a late fee

Unfortunately SUSI is extremely picky about documentation; a letter or leasing agreement from a private landlord confirming a tenancy is not acceptable for documentation of living independently. It must come from a government agency in some way (the RTB, some government housing agency, etc.), or from a proper rental agency on the agency's letterhead, or a hard-line utility bill in your own name (which is often not possible in a house share situation). I suppose it's to prevent kids from taking the piss and getting fake letters from their buddies claiming to be their landlord or some ****e in order to qualify for the larger grants.

blackis200

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058188261/my-landlord-isnt-registered-with-rtb-i-need-letter-for-grant-from-rtb

Did you get sorted with the letter?