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  1. Home
  2. Property and housing
  3. Keeping your home, homelessness and evictions

Homelessness

There are laws to help you, if your landlord is unfairly evicting you or you aren't safe where you live. You can get advice and help if you are homeless or at risk of losing your home.

If you are facing eviction during the Covid-19 crisis or are not safe where you live you can get help from the Housing Executive

Help from the Housing Executive

If you are homeless or likely to become homeless, the Housing Executive might need to offer you somewhere to stay or live. But this will depend on your circumstances.

  • Housing Executive

Get help and advice

Acting quickly is important if you are homeless or facing homelessness. The sooner you get help, the more likely you will be able to sort out your debts, find somewhere suitable to live, or prevent a landlord evicting you.

The Housing Executive must make sure that advice about homelessness is available free to everyone. When you present as a homeless, the Housing Executive will interview you and discuss your housing options with you.

Reasons for being homeless

Being homeless doesn't just mean living on the streets. You are also legally considered homeless and are entitled to get help to find somewhere to live or to stay in your home for different reasons including:

  • you have somewhere to live, but you can't stay there because you are worried about your personal safety because of the threat of violence, abuse or harassment (the threat doesn't have to be from someone living at your home, it can include a neighbour or ex-partner)
  • you have somewhere to live, but you can't stay because your home is in very poor condition and a threat to health
  • you have nowhere that you can live together with your family
  • you have been locked out of your home and you are not allowed back

Being evicted by your landlord

If you are facing homelessness because your landlord wants you to leave your home but you don't want to leave, your landlord must get a possession order from a court.

The law protects you against harassment and illegal eviction.

Tied accommodation

If your home is provided as part of your job, this is known as tied accommodation. If you could become homeless because your employment is about to end, you can get advice from housing advice organisations.

You could also contact the Housing Executive, as there may be things you need to do to show that you will be homeless, such as providing proof of this from your employer.

Housing information in other languages

To read about the housing rights of EEA nationals in Northern Ireland, go to:

  • Housing advice in other languages

The site is published in English, Polish, Lithuanian, Slovak, Russian and Portuguese. You can read about renting privately, homelessness, sharing a home, paying for your accommodation and other issues that affect migrant workers.

More useful links

  • Social housing
  • Advice NI
  • Council for the Homeless NI
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Keeping your home, homelessness and evictions

  • Advice to avoid losing your home
  • Enforcement of Civil Court Orders in Northern Ireland
  • Getting help with problems in private rented housing
  • Homelessness
  • Housing advice - representation in court
  • Housing Executive and housing association evictions
  • Mortgage arrears or payment difficulties
  • Property repossession - the role of the court
  • Protection against eviction
  • Support to stay in your own home
  • Support when you can't stay in your own home
  • When the lender takes action against you

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Comments or queries about angling can be emailed to anglingcorrespondence@daera-ni.gov.uk 

If you have a comment or query about benefits, you will need to contact the government department or agency which handles that benefit.  Contacts for common benefits are listed below.

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Email 
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Contact your local Jobs & Benefits office

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If your query is about another benefit, select ‘Other’ from the drop-down menu above.

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