Eviction in Northern Ireland

Landlords usually have to follow legal procedures before you can be evicted. If your landlord doesn't follow the correct legal procedure, s/he could be carrying out an illegal eviction. This is a criminal offence. Your landlord must follow certain steps to legally evict you.  Private landlords cannot evict you during a fixed term tenancy unless you have breached the tenancy agreement in some way.  Your landlord must follow due process of law in order to lawfully evict you.  Find out more about your rights if you rent privately on our renting subsite. If you're a tenant of a housing association and the Housing Executive check out the links below if you're worried about eviction.

Private tenants

Depending on whether or not you have a fixed term agreement your landlord may need to have good reasons for evicting you.  Visit our renting privately subsite to find out more about eviction.  More

Illegal eviction

Most private tenants can only be evicted if their landlord gets a possession order from the court. If your landlord has evicted you without following the correct procedure this may be illegal. Illegal eviction is a serious civil and criminal offence.  More

Housing Executive tenants

The Housing Executive will usually only evict you as a last resort. You will usually only be evicted if you break your tenancy agreement. More

Housing association tenants

Most housing associations have to follow the same legal procedure as the Housing Executive before evicting you. More

Eviction of other kinds of tenants

How easily your landlord can evict you depends on the kind of tenancy you have. If you are a licensee your landlord can evict you very easily. More

Going to court to be evicted

Legally your landlord usually has to go to court before evicting you. If you have broken the terms of your tenancy agreement it may be better to leave before going to court, as you are likely to have to pay your landlord's fees. More