Policy & Research

Letting fees are payments charged by estate agents. They include application fees and administration fees for carrying out credit and employment checks. Despite a significant court ruling in 2017, agents in Northern Ireland continue to charge fees to tenants. Housing Rights believes that the continued practice of charging unlawful letting fees illustrates that case law and Ministerial direction have not been sufficient to curb this practice. It is imperative, in our view, that legislation is brought forward to remove any ambiguity and to ensure that this unlawful practice is brought to an end. This briefing paper sets out the current legislative position in Northern Ireland and elsewhere in regards to letting fees, and highlights the omissions and ambiguities in the current legislation prohibiting such fees in Northern Ireland. 

In their 2017 Fundamental Review of Social Housing Allocations, the Department for Communities proposed that the Northern Ireland Housing Executive could meet its statutory duty to provide accommodation to homeless households by offering said households a tenancy in the private rented sector, subject to certain conditions. Given the lack of available social housing, Housing Rights appreciates the need for urgent action to address the growing waiting list for social housing and, in particular, the needs of people who are experiencing homelessness and waiting for unacceptably long periods for a new home. Housing Rights believes however that the sub sector of the private rented sector which would typically be accessible to homeless households provides neither an appropriate nor reasonable response to this problem. This policy briefing explains our position.