# "PRTB making good progress"



## Brendan Burgess (4 Feb 2010)

An interesting [broken link removed]of the PRTB in today's Irish Times

It was in response to [broken link removed] a week earlier. 



> It should also be noted that 69 per cent of the PRTB’s cases are taken by tenants against landlords and over 43 per cent of all cases relate to deposit retention, where landlords are required to return all or part of the deposit in 76 per cent of cases.
> 
> 
> It is evident, therefore, that if landlords returned deposits in a timely manner, it would free up PRTB resources to process cases (such as rent arrears) more quickly.


----------



## z107 (4 Feb 2010)

Not much substance in that article written by a director of the Private Residential Tenancies Board, in my opinion.

So it takes 40 employees to run the PRTB?


----------



## Bronte (5 Feb 2010)

The PRTB have got to be the worst organisation to deal with that I have ever come across. They have sent me documentation with the incorrect tenants name, they have spelt my name incorrectly, they have put an incorrect address for me. They have lost documentation on me. I have only received the registration documents 6 months+ after sending in the form. If you miss something on the form, say a date or somesuch instead of ringing you up they send the whole lot back (this was a case of 3 registrations and a tenant's PRSI number was incorrect). Why on earth does the PRTB ask for a phone number if they don't use it and haven't they heard of email. One enterprising lady from the PRTB did ring me once for the expiry date on my laser card instead of sending me back all the documentation. I've had to chase them for the registration confirmation more than once. Currently they are sending me reminders (after the 4 years) for tenants that have left. The list of properties on their excel file is hard to fathom. I can't find some of my registrations (I've given up looking) and I've found some of my properties twice or three times. No wonder they can claim they have so many properties registered. As for their enforcement claims, I've never received a letter and I know one person who has never registered despite having a few flats. 

The only advance they have made on this mess is that now we don't need the tenant's signature and they are a bit faster with the registrations. Of course if because a tenant had given you an incorrect PRSI number and then the tenant leaves before you can fix it revenue will come down on you like a ton of bricks.

I do believe they will move to a really modern 'cutting edge' system whereby we can simple in 2 minutes on a PC put in the details and hey presto by email receive confirmation. Now why they didn't do this from day one is beyond me. 
Contrast that with the NPPR scenario. 10 minutes (maybe 20 the first time) on the PC and fee paid on multiple properties and confirmations received.

Added to this mess is the fact that the revenue is using the PRTB registration as a stick to hit taxpayers, even though there is a facility in law to do late registrations revenue has it's own interpretation. The PRTB law was never designed for revenue to do this.

The PRTB makes my blood boil. A shambles. And revenue should be ashamed of themselves.


----------



## Trustmeh (5 Feb 2010)

Bronte said:


> If you miss something on the form, say a date or somesuch instead of ringing you up they send the whole lot back (this was a case of 3 registrations and a tenant's PRSI number was incorrect). .



+1

I have had the same experience, for the last 4 registrations it has taken 6 months for them to send me everything back for a minor thing missing.  

Just last month they returned a registration from September. This was a simple re-registration as the same tenant was still there after 4 years - in the instructions on the form it says that you don't need to specify all the details if they didn't change, and yet they still sent me back the form asking for all the details to be filled out. The check was expired at that stage - which is normal for prtb, I always have to rip up the first check and send a second one!


----------



## Bronte (5 Feb 2010)

And another thing, if you're a landlord and you make a claim against a tenant you can forget it.  Tenant's can stay in property for years paying no rent and the PRTB can do nothing.  You're better off evicting them and taking your chances on the fine the PRTB will give you.


----------



## gebbel (8 Feb 2010)

I want to echo previous posters' negative feedback on the PRTB. I have dealt with them twice in last few years on behalf of non-English speaking third parties who didn't get their deposits returned. On both occasions I found the waiting times to be ridiculously slow (14 months the last time). This was exacerbated by another very long time until the decisions were posted out. The employees there don't seem to have much enthusiasm to do much, emails routinely not returned etc. I would go so far as to say that it is a shambles of a show. These guys do nothing to save the reputation of the Public Service as an inefficient and bloated organisation. I know this is not the LOS forum so I'll leave it at that.


----------



## z104 (8 Feb 2010)

My experience is of waiting for 6 months to get an aknowledgement of a tenancy that had since ended .

I can just imagine that everything is managed with excel spreadsheets or worse manually written and filed .I would be surprised if they had any proper MIS system in place.


----------



## Knuttell (8 Feb 2010)

The PRTB needs a complete overhaul,you would wonder would it be easier to dismantle the existing model,lay off all staff and start again,trying to but a fix on a body as incompetent as this one has been allowed to become,would be akin to attempt building 6 more floors on a condemned property.


Any dealings I have had with them are in direct contradiction with Ann Marie Caulfields view of her organisation


----------



## lazylump (17 Feb 2010)

Snap !!!

I too have had difficulty with them where the tenant but a incorrect PPS number on the application form. 

They returned it to me with my 70 euro payment 6 months later to be corrected and charged me 140euro for late registering. All this would have taken was a 5 minute phone call to the tenant and why was I the landlord fined for the tenants error. 

I feel the board is very one sided (tenant side) and obviously short of funding if there are looking for opportunities to fine.


----------

