An owner who has paid the Rent Board fee in full may collect 50% of the fee (excluding any penalties that have been added to the fee) from the tenant(s) in occupancy of each residential unit on November 1st of each tax year. For the Rent Board fee billed in tax year 2022-2023, the owner may only collect the fee from the tenant if they are residing in the unit as of November 1, 2022.
Section 37A.6 of the Administrative Code allows the landlord to recover 50% of the Rent Board fee from the tenant by deducting it from the security deposit interest payment due to the tenant each year. If there is no security deposit held by the landlord, then the landlord may bill the tenant directly. Landlords who pay the security deposit interest annually may bill for the Rent Board fee separately rather than deducting it from the interest payment owed.
The billing statement must specifically state the Rent Board fee amount owed by the tenant for each year and the amount, if any, of security deposit interest due the tenant for each year owing. The bill should also state that the purpose of the fee is to fund the Rent Board, and that the fee is due and payable within 30 days of the date of the bill.
Landlords may “bank” the Rent Board fee since November 1999 and collect it in a later year. This means that a landlord does not have to collect the fee in the year that it was due, but is entitled to collect the Rent Board fee in later years if they so desire. Banking only applies to fees assessed from November 1999 on. A list of prior Rent Board fees since 1999 is available in our Forms Center.
Please note that a tenant’s failure to pay the Rent Board fee is not a just cause for eviction. The landlord must go to Small Claims Court in order to collect the fee.