# PRTB Letter - should I deal with it or are they just wasting money?



## ohtwo (24 Mar 2009)

Hi,

Myself and my wife yesterday separately received large envelopes full of letters and forms from PRTB.

The letter basically said that because we first registered a tenancy with them in 2004, that tenancy needed to be re-registered after 4 years, providing the same tenants are in place. In fact the letter stated that it has to be re-registered by September 2008. (so they were about 7 months late in sending out those letters anyway).

Now the problem is we have had 3 different sets of tenants in that property since 2004, and for each of them we sent in a new PRTB form with the €70 etc. (the latest one we sent in was two months ago).

So I am unsure why the PRTB sent these letters out (2 separate envelopes with the same mountain of paper in each to myself and my wife).
It’s a total waste of money and paper on their behalf and says to me that they are not on top of things in there at all.

Has anyone else experienced this?
I will be getting on to them later to explain and to point out their money wasting but now at the same time am slightly concerned that they haven’t been registering the property correctly since then, even though all cheques were cashed.


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## steelblue (24 Mar 2009)

Yes, i have experienced the same thing. You are wasting your time ringing them. I rang them and the person actually believed that they had a great system that reminded people after 4 yrs , that they needed to renew. Unfortunately she must have never heard about cross referencing their current records.

Reminded me of the saying " the left hand dosen't know what the right hand is doing"


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## ohtwo (24 Mar 2009)

it beggars belief! To top it all off now I've just checked and they havent yet cashed the cheque we sent them in January along with the last registration form.

I wonder what they actually do in there


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## Bronte (24 Mar 2009)

Did you receive confirmation from the PRTB of the registration of the tenancies.  They are the most inept state organisation I have ever dealt with.  They have not sent me reminders but I realised the 4 years were up.  Only correspond with them by registered post if registering a tenancy.


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## ohtwo (24 Mar 2009)

now that you mention it, I dont recall receiving confirmation. But will check later.


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## AlbacoreA (24 Mar 2009)

Must be completely understaffed. Its a drop in the ocean to what required.


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## Butter (24 Mar 2009)

I sent a new registration form to them on Jan 15th this year.  Last week they returned it to me (because the second tenant was unavailable to sign the form at the time), asking me to get the second tenant to sign before they would register the tenancy.  Fair enough I suppose.
Then this week I got a reminder letter & forms about renewing the old 4 year tenancy.  Surely there is a computer programme that could track details of each property?  That must be too much to ask!


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## Armada (24 Mar 2009)

Yes, I am another one who received the end of 4 year term letters. In my case the particular property is now on its fourth tenant. All tenancies were registered and validated.

What a waste in every sense!!


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## minion (26 Mar 2009)

ohtwo said:


> I wonder what they actually do in there




Nothing.
Sure you have to write to them to get a receipt.


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## mary123 (1 Apr 2009)

I registered tenancy for first time early Feb 09. I haven't received anything back from them correspondance wise and they haven't lodged the €70 cheque either. Should i chase it up with them? How long does it usually take? What correspondance should i expect to get back from them? Thanks


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## Galwayboy (1 Apr 2009)

I wouldn't be to worried just yet. It can take a couple of months for them to deal with the registration and to cash the cheque. Other times they can get it done in a month.


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## Holtend82 (1 Apr 2009)

I think it takes them six weeks to issue a correspondance, i know someone working there and they are very understaffed.


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## Bessa (1 Apr 2009)

Thats the usual carry on with the PRTB. Someone needs to get a grip in that office. How many of the 4 year term notices have been sent out to people, when they have all the details in their office. I see this carry on as an awful waste of time and money, and it needs to stop.


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## Bronte (2 Apr 2009)

mary123 said:


> I registered tenancy for first time early Feb 09. I haven't received anything back from them correspondance wise and they haven't lodged the €70 cheque either. Should i chase it up with them? How long does it usually take? What correspondance should i expect to get back from them? Thanks


 Did you send it by registered post.  If not I'd contact them.


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## mro (2 Apr 2009)

I had the same problem, they sent me a letter saying i needed to re-register a tenancy after 4 years whereas i had registered the new tenancy about 1 year previously. 
I rang and it turns out they had typed in the address in the 2nd registration wrong (saying i had obvioulsy sent in the wrong address on the form, which i had in front of me and it was right!!)  he updated it and there and then.  

In fairness they were very easy to deal with but still it shouldn't happen in the first place.


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## mangos (5 Apr 2009)

Hi 

Just looking at all your threads.  Are you as Landlords prepared to accept this inept system?  After all you pay enough money to have your properties registered.  I have put threads here before asking people to email me with their experiences of the PRTB to see if we could have it improved.  In addition I have sent countless emails to numerous politicians outlining my concerns about this board.

Any of you interested in trying to get this mess sorted out??

Mangos


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## Bronte (6 Apr 2009)

mangos said:


> Hi
> 
> Just looking at all your threads. Are you as Landlords prepared to accept this inept system?


 
We have no choice but to deal with the PRTB so in my case I just get on with it.  There is an organisation that works for lobbying on landlords behalf.  The Irish Property Owners Organisation I belive it's called.


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## ohtwo (9 Apr 2009)

mangos said:


> Any of you interested in trying to get this mess sorted out??
> 
> Mangos



absolutely. I have been reading some horror stories of tenants not paying rent and PRTB not knowing how long it would take to sort out the issue. In most cases it seems that landlords will lose up to 1 years rent before PRTB will sort things out, and of course there is no guarantee that they will sort it out.

Can anyone tell me who 'regulates' the PRTB? ie: who can I contact to discuss all of this with. Is it the department of finance?

PRTB is a farce and yes I would like to get in touch with someone who might actually listen to my concerns.


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## mangos (10 Apr 2009)

Hi

This situation will not change until we start to force our politicians to take action.  I have emailed on a number of occasions Ciaran Lynch about this.  He is the labour spokesperson on housing - I also emailed my own local Fianna fail TD and John Gormley's office.  It is clear these guys are extremely flippant about the whole matter.  What is needed is group action.  All of you encountering problems with the PRTB should write a letter of complaint to their complaints section telling them you are unhappy with their treatment of you.  Secondly if you are making a complaint against a tenant, demand feedback on that complaint by emailing them every week for an update.  Thirdly if no response at all is forthcoming request a copy of your file under Data Protection Acts 1988 & 2003.  Fourthly if they lose your letters or do not update your regisratration of new tenants, check with the Data Protection office and see if you can make a formal complaint for their loss of your data.  And finally we can all get together on this.

Send me a private email if interested.
Mangos


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