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The Committee for Communities wants views on planned changes to private renting in Northern Ireland and has issued a call for evidence. You can respond as an individual or an organisation. You must respond by 29 October 2021. There are 42 questions, but you do not have to respond to all of these.
Leading housing advice charity, Housing Rights, has welcomed the extension of emergency measures which will ensure private renters continue to have enhanced protection against eviction during the period of COVID-19.
The Department for Communities is developing a new private tenancies bill for Northern Ireland. The bill aims to improve standards and enhance conditions for tenants living in the private rented sector.
Last week department officials briefed the Committee for Communities on the progression of this new bill.
Changes to deposit rules, notice periods and rent increases
The bill proposes a number of changes. Of most significance are:re
Universal Credit may refuse a claim for help to pay a person’s housing costs if
they think that a tenancy is not a genuine commercial relationship between a landlord and a tenant or
they believe the tenancy was created to take advantage of the benefit system.
It’s important to get advice quickly if this happens to you or to your clients. Submitting a well-argued mandatory reconsideration request can help to prevent homelessness.
Regulations have been laid which extend emergency measures to increase the amount of notice which must be given to private tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In January 2021, the Department of Finance published their draft budget. The document sets out the Northern Ireland Executive’s proposed spending plans for the one year period from 1 April 2021 to March 2022.
In the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chancellor decided to realign Local Housing Allowance rates so that they accurately reflected the 30th percentile of local rents. This announcement was widely welcomed, although many organisations argued that LHA rates should never have been allowed to drift so far from real market rents and that a more supportive emergency measure would be to increase the rates to the 50th percentile of local rents.
In 2017, Housing Rights, with the assistance of PILS NI, supported local student Paul Loughran in a legal case against two estate agents. Mr Loughran sought to recover fees he had paid to both agents when he applied for a private tenancy.
