Practical tips

Housing Rights provides the only Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme in Northern Ireland. These court desks schemes, which are more commonly seen in England, provide free legal representation to homeowners and tenants who are in court for possession hearings and risk being made homeless because of housing debt.

Advice and representation at court can make all the difference as this recent example illustrates.

When Brian first spoke to Housing Rights, he was living in a private tenancy and his only income was carer’s allowance. He was in arrears with his rent and at risk of eviction by his landlord. At this stage, Brian was not entitled to Housing Benefit, but our adviser agreed to take on his case and look into how she could help him.  

We've just added a new video to our video library on housingadviceNI.  The housingadviceNI website is funded by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and aims to provide information in plain English to help people find the answers to their housing problems. 

Recently, a social worker contacted Housing Rights to ask if we could help his client John.  John’s home had been left in a poor state of repair after adaptations were carried out and his housing association had told him that he’d have to cover the cost of redecorating himself.