Advice To Landlords

Public health notices and repair grants - advice to landlords of dwelling houses

If a landlord needs to do structural work to his property to put things right, a grant is available to help pay for repairs.

If you ask us to serve a public health notice on your house, an Environmental Health Officer will inspect your premises. If we are satisfied that a statutory nuisance exists, we will serve an abatement notice on you, telling you to put the problem right.

It is not the disrepair (bad condition) which creates a statutory (legal) nuisance but whether or not the disrepair is causing conditions that are bad for health.

You should finish the work needed to put the nuisance right within the time stated on the notice.

You can get a repairs grant from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive towards the costs of the work specified in an abatement notice served for a dwelling house. The work you can get a grant for will be the smallest amount of work needed to put the problem right.

Once the work has been finished, the grant will be decided using a schedule of rates provided by the Housing Executive. The amount of grant will be a percentage of this approved cost, even if you have paid your contractor more than this to have the work done.

You should note that the largest approved cost is £7,500 over a three year period.

In most cases the percentage grant will depend on the net annual value (NAV) of your house:

If your property has a protected tenancy under the Rent (N.I.) Order 1978, you will be entitled to a 90% grant.

If the NI Housing Executive believes you suffer from financial hardship, you will be entitled to a 90% grant.

You are advised not to start work until you receive the abatement notice as this could affect your entitlement to a grant.

Levels of grant aid may be affected by changes to the law and we cannot issue abatement notices for work already done.

Other useful websites

www.nihe.gov.uk/grants

www.eaga.com/government_contracts/warmerhomes

www.energysavingtrust.org.uk