RTB Case studies

[stormy]

Just curious here but if the tribunal decision again the widow was because the property became available for re-letting and she didn't offer it back, apart from paying the tenant damages, could the investigations unit become involved?

Yes, and for once the RTB's guidance is spot on. The page you found matches the Act: failure to offer a tenancy back after an own-use notice is "improper conduct" under Schedule 2, item (e), and the RTB "may, of its own volition" investigate it, with no complaint needed (s.148U(1)).

So an accommodation provider can be penalised twice for the same thing. First the Tribunal awards the tenant damages, nearly EUR 20,000 here. Then the RTB can come back on the same facts with a fixed payment notice, a prosecution, or a sanction of up to EUR 15,000 plus EUR 15,000 costs.

Nothing in the Act stops it; the only link between the two tracks (s.148T(2)(e)) just routes complaints that belong in a dispute.

They would probably want to pick a less sympathetic target than an elderly widow though, for their first prosecution.

Agreed, I'd be very surprised. But the RTB is now complainant, investigator, sanctioner and publisher, and the same facts can be used against a landlord twice.

And worth flagging it only ever points one way. Schedule 2 is headed "Improper conduct in relation to a landlord". There is no list for tenants. No fixed payment notices, no investigations, no sanctions, whatever a tenant does.

The below are the type of cases for which there will be no sanction or investigation
Tribunals have upheld 7-day notices for a hammer assault (https://rtb.ie/disputes/dispute-outcomes-and-orders/adjudication-and-tribunal-orders/?_search=TR0001493 (TR0001493)), a knife (https://rtb.ie/disputes/dispute-outcomes-and-orders/adjudication-and-tribunal-orders/?_search=TR0001059 (TR0001059)), threats and intimidation (https://rtb.ie/disputes/dispute-outcomes-and-orders/adjudication-and-tribunal-orders/?_search=TR0001421 (TR0001421)) and assault (https://rtb.ie/disputes/dispute-outcomes-and-orders/adjudication-and-tribunal-orders/?_search=TR0001047 (TR0001047)). In none of them does the RTB act against the tenant itself. A valid 7-day notice doesn't remove anyone either. If the tenant stays put, it's the landlord who has to bring the case, wait for a hearing, and then go to court to enforce it, while the neighbours live with it.

Meanwhile the RTB's own neighbour disputes page tells neighbours they can take a case against the landlord for the tenant's behaviour, and that "Landlords can be ordered to make large payments to neighbours".

The tenant behaves badly; the landlord pays. The landlord makes a mistake; the landlord pays twice.

 

[bipped]

the RTB is now complainant, investigator, sanctioner and publisher, and the same facts can be used against a landlord twice.

Trying to understand the fixed penalty notices - if the rtb issues one (for the relevant breach) and the landlord pays it, is that the end of it as far as the improper conduct goes? Does the investigation unit only get involved if the landlord doesn’t pay and that’s what leads to a day in court plus a criminal record?