Private Tenancies

A fixed-term tenancy offers private tenants extra protection. Usually, if a tenant has a fixed-term contract: 

• the landlord can't increase the rent until the contract ends, and 
• the landlord can only evict the tenant if they've breached the contract.  

Our adviser helped 2 tenants show that their fixed-term contracts were valid, despite the landlord not signing these.  

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. 

The Private Tenancies (Coronavirus Modifications) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2021 come into operation on 30 March 2021. They extend the emergency period during which extended notice is required to 30 September 2021. 

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.