Housing after Brexit

Housing Rights will be keeping you up to date with the implications of Brexit on housing in Northern Ireland. Over the past number of weeks we have been working hard to develop resources for the public, housing practitioners, landlords and letting agents.

Our Brexit-related housing information will be available on this website and on www.housingadviceNI.org. But, if you have any Brexit and housing related queries you can, of course, call through to our helpline on 028 90245640.

Key concerns identified to date

We've talked to Europeans living in Northern Ireland and we've consulted with people working in the sector in an effort to understand the main concerns people have about how their housing rights and options could change as a result of the UK leaving the EU. The main areas of concern are:

• how Brexit will impact on a person's right to access certain social assistance, including housing and homelessness assistance and social security benefits
• whether Brexit could lead to a person having to leave their home
• that European nationals will find it increasingly difficult, or increasingly costly to find and keep a home in the private rented sector
• that the lack of certainty around Brexit could make landlords and letting agents more reluctant to let to European nationals
• worries that changes to peoples' immigration status after Brexit could impact on their landlords
• that there will be an increase in hate crime towards European people living in Northern Ireland and that people won't feel safe in their homes as a result.

Brexit for Landlords

There is a lot of confusing information out there for landlords with very little information targeted specifically at those landlords operating in Northern Ireland. There are different laws in place in England and often landlords may mistakenly believe that policies, such as the Right to Rent, apply equally to landlords in Northern Ireland. We will adding content to HousingadviceNI.org and creating a free webinar for landlords and letting agents to ease their concerns about renting to European nationals after Brexit. 

Brexit for housing practitioners

We are producing a series of free webinars covering topics such as accessibility and eligibility for housing costs so you will be able to build your knowledge at your own time and pace.

Dedicated content on this website will keep you up to date on the latest changes and how they could affect your clients. We will also have information on HousingAdviceNI.org to help your clients and members of the public. As always, our advisers are available to help you with your more complicated queries. 

Brexit and its impact on a person's housing situation

We are developing outreach and support sessions, which will be delivered in key languages by EU nationals. We have recruited from minority ethnic communities who will be helping us deliver peer services to their own communities and who will be able to provide interpreting services to people who need to contact Housing Rights for advice, but who are not confident speaking in English. 

We will be providing content on HousingAdviceNI and translating elements of this information into Polish, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Portuguese, Slovak and English. 

Outreach sessions

If you are an employer or a community organisation who works with EU nationals and would like us to provide an information session for you, contact Sonya.