Irish Times: "Is the RTB fit for purpose?"

[Dermot]

I had a similar experience to Bronte as described in Post No 38. It was an online hearing ( first for me ). The " Tenant " who brought the case against was prompted all the way by RTB in compiling their case against me which I could see from the documents which were submitted for the hearing.
Surely natural justice should allow for the respondent to make their case before the RTB decide to hold a hearing.
I was able to refute all the allegations made by the tenant and I did meet a nice adjudicator. I consider that I won the case.
Guess What?. 3 years later I have not gotten any result written or otherwise despite about 15 phone calls and as many emails to RTB.
I could cite another bad experience I have had with them but I do not want to upset myself anymore today about them.

 

[Bronte]

I could cite another bad experience I have had with them but I do not want to upset myself anymore today about them.

I completely get that. My story has a happy ending thought. DESPITE the RTB I got all the tenants out thanks to the tenacity of a sibling.

Here's another lie from the Times article:

“The dispute resolution procedures are also intended to be more accessible and faster than those of the courts. Together, this means that resolving a dispute through the RTB is simpler, less costly and less time consuming than it would be if landlords and tenants had to bring their disputes through the courts.”

You have to go to court to get an order enforced. It would have been faster and more accessible for me to go to court. We eventually did threaten the HAP tenant with court (the up to no good one I wrote about on the HAP thread) and he capitulated as he didn't want his dirty linen aired in a public forum (see RTB what you're able to hide about tenants because of your anti consumer secrecy and anti transparency rules).

And how is it that no journalist asks the RTB how many court cases they took against tenants to get them to pay back rent. None is the answer. Because they know full well it's a waste of time. Meanwhile landlord with no rent for one or two years is going batty figuring out how to get the tenant out and how to pay the mortgage. While the RTB puts every bureaucratic nightmare they can in the landlords way.

(weirdly I got a ten euro refund from the RTB the other day into my bank account, that's more proof of what a shambles their current annual registration is, they are giving refunds, and I've zero clue which tenancy it relates to, as they didn't inform me, and I can prove that too for AAM)

 

[Dr Strangelove]

I had an RTB dispute a few years ago about a withheld deposit.

It was a grudge match, and both sides had copious evidence and responded promptly to all RTB requests and hit all deadlines.

The determination still took six months.

If either of us had dragged their heels or submitted incomplete information it could have taken twice as long.

 

[bipped]

If the RTB is the government agency with expertise about the RTA do they not have a responsibilty to answer queries about the rules and regulations from the public?
I rang the rtb with a general query that's not answered on their website and they told me to ring threshold or a solicitor.
If I had a question about tax and rang the revenue they would answer the query, provide information and are generally very helpful, same with dsp, or other government agencies. I don't recall ever being told to ring a charity or pay a professional by revenue, dsp, council or other public services.
I am not a landlord but there doesn't seem to be any customer service from rtb. Really bad that they are so dismissive.

 

[Leo]

If the RTB is the government agency with expertise about the RTA do they not have a responsibilty to answer queries about the rules and regulations from the public?

Their role is set out in the legislation, while they are expected to publish guidelines, they were never intended to provide guidance or advice to individual members of the public.