What actually happens at an RTB hearing.

Most people facing a Residential Tenancies Board hearing have never seen one. The official guidance tells you to bring a pen, paper and copies of your documents — true, but not much of a picture. Here is what the process actually looks like, whichever side you are on.

Who is in the room

An adjudication is heard by a single adjudicator. A Tenancy Tribunal — the appeal stage — has traditionally sat as a three-member panel, though recent legislation provides for single-member Tribunals in certain circumstances; either way it is a full re-hearing of the dispute, not a review of the adjudicator's decision (and the parties can agree to confine it to specific matters). Hearings are commonly held remotely by video. A stenographer records everything said; either party can request a transcript from the RTB afterwards for a fee.

The sequence

1. The chairperson opens the hearing, confirms who is present and in what capacity, and checks that everyone received the case file and the RTB's Tribunal Procedures document in advance.
2. The chairperson explains the conduct rules. It is an offence to refuse the oath or affirmation, to refuse to produce documents the Tribunal requires, to refuse to answer its questions, or to knowingly give materially false or misleading information — punishable by a fine of up to €4,000, up to six months' imprisonment, or both.
3. Everyone giving evidence makes an affirmation to tell the truth.
4. The panel may put a short list of agreed facts to the parties — dates, rent, deposit — to narrow what is actually in dispute. Agreeing what is truly not contested is not a concession; it reads as reasonableness.
5. The appellant (the party who brought the appeal) presents first. The other side may then ask questions. Then the respondent presents, and the appellant may ask questions in turn. The panel asks its own questions throughout.
6. Both sides may make a short closing submission, and the hearing concludes — typically inside one to two hours.

The two rules that catch people out

You cannot produce new documents on the day. Under the RTB's procedural rules, your evidence and submissions must reach the RTB no later than 5 days before the hearing — and you must redact confidential details (bank accounts, phone numbers, other people's information) yourself before submitting. Late documents are admitted only at the decision-maker's discretion. Keep the originals of everything; you may be asked to produce them.

Not turning up does not pause anything — and it can end your case. If you brought the application or the appeal and you do not attend, it risks being treated as abandoned — decided without you, or dismissed without the merits ever being heard. If you are responding and do not attend, the hearing proceeds and is decided on the other side's evidence alone. If you genuinely cannot attend on the date, apply to the RTB for an adjournment as early as possible — do not simply stay away.

The settlement window

Here is something the official guidance barely mentions: the Tribunal will typically afford the parties an opportunity to settle — privately, on confidential terms — before or during the hearing, and an agreement reached is adopted as an enforceable order. If you feel your position is weak, that window may be worth more to you than the hearing itself: a carved-out settlement on terms you can live with (a workable vacate date, a realistic payment plan, the deposit resolved) beats an adverse finding. Decide before you arrive what you could accept, so the opportunity never catches you unprepared.

After the hearing

The decision arrives in writing. An adjudication can be appealed to a Tribunal within a short statutory window; a Tribunal determination, once embodied in a Determination Order of the Board, becomes binding unless appealed to the High Court within 21 days — and then only on a point of law, not on the merits.