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Housing Rights Service and Law Centre (NI) have recently responded to the Home Office consultation ‘Tackling illegal immigration in privately rented accommodation’. Under the proposals all private landlords will have to carry out checks on the immigration status of every tenant before renting out a room or house.
Our housing advice line gets stacks of queries about renting privately. A lot of the PRS cases that come through to me and my colleagues could have been prevented at the start of the tenancy if the tenant or the landlord was better prepared.
We get a lot of calls in September and October each year from people who've signed up to a tenancy that hasn't worked out. The reasons that people have for wanting to get out of agreements are understandable, some common issues are:
The Housing Executive has just launched its latest Review and Perspectives on the Northern Ireland Housing Market for 2013 – 2016. The document looks at the prospects for the local housing market against a backdrop of what is happening in the economy and population changes.
New figures released today (14 August 2013) by the Tenancy Deposit Scheme Northern Ireland show that local tenants are paying higher deposits than previously estimated.
To end a tenancy either the landlord or the tenant must serve a Notice to Quit. But, can that notice be served electronically? We’ve asked our Legal Team to investigate. Carmel Ferguson reports.
The law regarding Notice to Quit
Article 14 Of the Private Tenancies Order 2006 states that—
Landlords who rent accommodation to illegal immigrants risk being fined up to £3,000 under plans recently proposed by the UK Government. Ministers want to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to rent private accommodation in the UK.
The Home Office has issued a consultation paper on tackling illegal immigration in privately rented accommodation and is seeking views on its proposals that landlords carry out immigration checks on tenants.
The Department for Social Development released its Housing Strategy "Facing the Future" for consultation in October 2012. With little fanfare, the Department has now published an Action Plan to deliver this strategy. The plan sets out a number of objectives and actions for the next four years (to 2017) and includes the key themes originally proposed in the consultation paper:
Ben Beadle, Director of TDS Northern Ireland gives his take on how best to avoid disputes over deposits. Ben has previously worked on the adjudication team in TDS and has first hand experience in mediating disputes between tenants and landlords.
In a briefing to the Assembly’s Committee for Finance & Personnel on 5th June 2013, Housing Rights Service warned that proposed changes contained in the Department for Finance & Personnel (DFP)’s Review of Rates Liability for the Landlord Sector will not make much of a difference to our clients.