Protected tenancies

The rights of protected tenants are guaranteed by law and cannot be overridden by the terms of a tenancy agreement.

Finding out if a tenancy is protected

You may be a protected tenant if you have been living in the same property since before 1 April 2007 and the property you are living in is, or was on 1 April 2007, in a poor state of repair.  If you're not sure whether you're a protected tenant or not, there are a number of ways to find out.

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Rent control

The Rent Officer for Northern Ireland is responsible for setting rates on protected tenancies.  If your landlord is charging more than the Rent Officer has allowed, you could be entitled to have this money back.

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Rights and repairs

Protected tenants have greater rights to stay on in a property than other tenants.  You may be entitled to stay in the property for the rest of your life.  Responsibility for repairs in protected tenancies may depend on whether you have a tenancy agreement or not.

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Being evicted from a protected tenancy

Your landlord must be very careful when trying to evict your from a protected tenancy.  Unless the landlord can prove that certain criteria apply to your tenancy, any eviction could be illegal.

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£1 per week housing benefit

Protected tenants who claim housing benefit will only receive £1 per week from the Housing Executive.  Your landlord cannot ask you to pay any additional money on top of this, unless the landlord can prove to the Housing Executive that the tenancy is not, in fact, protected.

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