CR109 and tenancy records: new lettings, renewals and the correct form

Identify CR109 or AR2 before completing a notice

For an ordinary domestic new letting or renewal, the landlord must lodge CR109 with RVD within one month after the agreement is entered into or renewed. The trigger is not the moving date. A lease signed before its start date therefore needs its reporting deadline considered from the agreement date. Record when the parties actually entered into the agreement, the term and signed versions, and ask RVD where the facts are unclear.

A subdivided-unit tenancy regulated under Part IVA uses AR2 with its sixty-day period after the term commences, rather than treating CR109 as a substitute. AR1 concerns the second-term offer and AR3 a tenant's enquiry about the AR2 record. Commercial, ordinary domestic and regulated tenancies should not be placed into one form workflow simply because all involve an agreement.

Complete from the agreement and follow the endorsement

1. Use the current form and match the full address and extent of the letting, including part of a flat or accessory accommodation. Enter term, rent, predetermined changes and rates or Government-rent arrangements from the actual agreement, rather than reconstructing them from an old advertisement.
2. Use RVD's electronic form service or the postal or personal-service channel specified on CR109. Fax is not accepted, and acknowledgement of a paper submission must be specifically requested. Retain date, reference and versions and assign representative follow-up; delivery to an agent and receipt by RVD remain separate events.
3. Check address, dates and rent on the endorsed record and store it alongside the lease, stamp certificate and payments. Follow RVD's correction process for mistakes. On renewal, establish the fresh notice requirement rather than using the previous term's receipt as proof that everything is complete.

Understand the boundaries of notification and stamping

Stamping by IRD and a tenancy notice to RVD are separate procedures. An electronic link does not prove the second form was sent, so save each acknowledgement. The current CR109 states that lodgement for endorsement within one month is free and late submission costs HK$310. Recheck the instructions and payment arrangements instead of inventing a later agreement date to appear timely.

For an ordinary domestic tenancy, lack of CR109 endorsement affects the landlord's ability to maintain an action to recover rent. It does not automatically erase the agreement or arrears, nor give a tenant general permission to stop paying. Present the endorsement status together with the agreement, payments and correspondence when seeking advice, instead of extracting one procedural consequence as a complete answer to a dispute.

Example: a Yuen Long lease signed before key delivery

Tat enters into an ordinary domestic lease on 12 September, with the term starting on 1 October. His folder records agreement, commencement and stamping dates separately, and he asks the landlord handling CR109 to calculate its deadline from the agreement date. When the agent sends the stamp certificate, Tat still requests the RVD acknowledgement rather than treating both procedures as a single completed task.

At renewal, he checks the notice and stamping arrangements again. A friend renting a regulated subdivided unit instead checks AR2 and the term commencement date, so they do not reuse one deadline sheet. The example illustrates date and evidence management; when a particular agreement was entered into and whether it is regulated still depend on the documents and actual circumstances.