As a result of new legislation recently passed by the Dail namely The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 new obligations have been imposed on Landlords of residential properties.

By 1st January, 2005 a Landlord must have registered any existing tenancies with the Private Residential Tenancies Board. A form FORMPRTB1 must be filled up and signed by both the Landlord and Tenant within one month of the tenancy together with a fee of €70. The form and fee is payable each time there is a new tenancy agreement. If a Landlord has the same Tenants for three years he will only have to register once but if the Tenants change three time in three years he will have to register three times and pay the fee three times.

The advantage of being registered is that there will be a new Dispute Resolution Service set up to deal with disputes between Landlords and Tenants but a Landlord can only avail of this service if they have registered the tenancy.

A possible disadvantage of been registered is that the information supplied may be exchanged with Local Authorities and the Department of Social & Family Affairs as well as Revenue Commissioners.