Raising standards while avoiding unnecessary duplication
We are in favour of the Landlord Register to create a more level playing field across Northern Ireland. A stronger Scheme can help enforcement bodies target poor practice, improve compliance and protect tenants without penalising professional landlords and agents who already meet their responsibilities.
Propertymark will continue to engage with the Department for Communities (DfC) to ensure the final regulations are workable, proportionate and clear for landlords and agents.
More information required at registration
Landlords will continue to register before letting a tenancy and renew their registration every three years. The registration fee remains at £70 for electronic applications and £80 for non-electronic applications, with the same fees applying to continued registration. Owners of licensed houses in multiple occupation would continue to be exempt from the registration fee.
Landlords will be asked to provide details including:
- the property address
- when it was built
- the name and contact details of any joint owners
- declarations relating to key legal duties, including whether the property is fit for human habitation, compliance with duties under Article 11B (1) of the Private Tenancies (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, smoke, heat and carbon monoxide alarm duties, electrical safety checks, gas safety requirements, and EPC obligations where they apply.
Propertymark held a member focus group to feed our consultation response, with many giving significant support to the proposals, particularly around gas safety, where support was unanimous.
However, some agents raised concerns about duplication. Many already provide relevant safety and compliance documents to prospective tenants as part of the letting process. We have therefore recommended that, once the information-sharing function is embedded in the Scheme, landlords and agents should be able to share links to information held on the Scheme rather than being expected to provide the same documents repeatedly.
Clarity needed for fully managed properties
The final Scheme guidance must make clear whether letting agents can upload documents and information on behalf of landlords where they fully manage a property.
This is particularly important because, in many fully managed arrangements, the agent will hold and organise the relevant documents as part of their service to the landlord. Without clear guidance, there is a risk of confusion over who is expected to upload information to the Scheme and how responsibilities should work in practice.
An agent fully managing a property should be able to submit the relevant information on the landlord’s behalf. This would support compliance and avoid unnecessary administrative barriers.
Information sharing with enforcement bodies
The draft Regulations would allow information held by the registrar, but not included on the public register, to be disclosed to authorised officers from specified bodies, including the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland.
Sharing information for the purposes of gas safety enforcement was backed by 71% of members surveyed. We believe the change is necessary if the Register is to be used effectively to identify landlords and agents who are not meeting minimum legal standards.
Propertymark is also a long-standing supporter of Gas Safe Week and continues to encourage agents to remind landlords and tenants about annual checks, alarms, and the importance of using Gas Safe registered engineers.
Gas safety checks for landlords
Research has shown that more than one in three private landlords did not know it was their responsibility to get gas appliances checked.
Data use must be carefully explained
The DfE has also proposed using non-identifying information from the Register for research and statistical purposes to support the development of private rented sector policy and legislation.
Propertymark supports this in principle because better data can help the Department make decisions based on up-to-date evidence about the sector. However, members have expressed concerns about how the data may be used and whether there is enough clarity about the benefits. Propertymark has therefore urged the Department to give agents and landlords stronger reassurance that data will not be collected or processed in a way that personally identifies them.
We have also made clear that resources should remain focused on identifying and acting against non-compliant landlords and agents.
What agents should do now
The proposals do not remove the need for agents to check that landlords are registered. Although agents are not liable for an offence if a landlord is not registered, failure to advise landlords properly can still damage an agent’s reputation and reflect poorly on their service.
Agents in Northern Ireland should continue to check that landlord clients are registered before a tenancy is let and should ensure that landlords understand their registration duties. Where agents manage properties fully, they should also review how they hold and organise compliance documents, so they are ready for any new requirements.
