Agenda item

The Committee considered the undernoted report:

 

“1.0      Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

 

1.1       The report is intended to give members an update on the activity of the NIHMO service during the financial year 2025/26.

 

1.2       Belfast City Council’s NIHMO service, on behalf of each of the 11 Northern Ireland Councils is responsible for managing the HMO Licensing Scheme application process, which includes processing all licence requests, validating the requests, checks and inspections of HMO properties, issuing enforcement notices and dealing with breaches of licensing conditions.

 

1.3       The granting, refusal, variation or revocation of an HMO licence rests with the individual Council.

 

2.0       Recommendations

 

            The Committee is asked to note the activity of the NIHMO service during the financial year 2025/26.

 

3.0       Main report

 

            Key Issues

 

            HMO Licensing

 

3.1       Table 1 provides a summary of the number of HMO’s licensed on 31 March 2026

 

 

            Table 1

 

Row Labels	Count by Council Area	Permitted Occupancy
Antrim and Newtownabbey	15	70
Ards and North Down	13	80
Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon	59	331
Belfast	2996	12981
Causeway Coast and Glens	214	927
Derry City and Strabane	250	1202
Fermanagh and Omagh	5	20
Lisburn and Castlereagh	9	46
Mid and East Antrim	12	76
Mid Ulster	18	120
Newry Mourne and Down	18	97
Grand Total	3609	15950

 

3.2       Table 2 provides a summary of the number of licenses granted and renewed during the financial year 2025/26.

 

            Table 2

 

Row Labels	New Applications	Renewal Application	Total by Council Area
Antrim and Newtownabbey	0	0	0
Ards and North Down	0	1	1
Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon	12	5	17
Belfast	150	578	728
Causeway Coast and Glens	16	44	60
Derry City and Strabane	44	33	77
Fermanagh and Omagh	0	1	1
Lisburn and Castlereagh	0	0	0
Mid and East Antrim	4	0	4
Mid Ulster	2	0	2
Newry Mourne and Down	0	1	1
Grand Total	228	663	891

 

            Note: New applications include those properties which had a license in the name of a different licensee and were subsequently sold / transferred.

 

3.3       Table 3 provides a summary of the number of HMO licence applications that have not been successful (by reason) during the financial year 2025/26

 

            Table 3

 

Council	Not received from owner	Breach of planning control	Documentation	Notice of Publication	Fee not Paid	Overprovision	Fit & proper person	Grand total
Antrim and Newtownabbey	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
Ards and North Down	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Belfast	0	4	10	3	0	5	0	22
Causeway Coast and Glens	1	0	0	2	2	0	0	5
Derry City and Strabane	0	0	1	3	1	0	0	5
Fermanagh and Omagh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lisburn and Castlereagh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Mid and East Antrim	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Mid Ulster	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Newry Mourne and Down	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Grand Total	1	4	11	8	3	5	2	34

 

            HMO Inspections

 

3.4       Table 4 provides a summary of the number of inspections (by type) undertaken during the financial year 2025/26

 

            Table 4

 

Council	No Access	Licensing Inspections	Interim (WIP)	Final	Enforcement	Grand Total
Antrim and Newtownabbey	2	3	0	1	22	28
Ards and North Down	0	6	1	2	6	15
Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon	1	13	1	5	32	52
Belfast	37	869	12	262	235	1415
Causeway Coast and Glens	0	71	0	24	6	101
Derry City and Strabane	13	95	3	48	16	175
Fermanagh and Omagh	1	1	0	0	4	6
Lisburn and Castlereagh	0	2	0	1	7	10
Mid and East Antrim	1	6	1	1	23	32
Mid Ulster	0	5	0	1	8	14
Newry Mourne and Down	3	17	0	2	11	33
Grand Total	58	1088	18	347	370	1881

 

         HMO Enforcement

 

3.5    Table 5 provides a summary of enforcement action taken in Belfast by ward.

 

         Table 5

 

Row Labels	Section 30(1)	Section 30(2)	Section 31(1)	Section 33(1)	Section 33(2)	Section 5(2)	Section 5(5)	Section 71	Section 72	Section 73	Section 78	Grand Total
BALLYGOMARTIN	1											1
BEECHMOUNT						1			1			2
BLACKSTAFF						1	1		1		1	4
BLOOMFIELD						1						1
CENTRAL	2			1	1	1		5	15	4	4	33
CHICHESTER PARK	1			1						2		4
CLIFTONVILLE						1			1			2
CONNSWATER				1		1	1	4	4			11
DUNCAIRN						1		4	4			9
FALLS PARK								4	4	7		15
FINAGHY						1			1			2
INNISFAYLE						1	1		1		1	4
MALONE								1	1			2
ORMEAU	1	1										2
ROSETTA									2			2
STRANMILLIS	1			1	1							3
SYDENHAM	1					1	1		1		1	5
WATER WORKS	1											1
WINDSOR	5	2	1					4	8			20
Grand Total	13	3	1	4	2	10	4	22	44	13	7	123

 

         Key

 

         Section 30(1) – Non licensed HMO (owner) - £5000 fixed penalty notice

         Section 30(2) – Non licensed HMO (agent) - £5000 fixed penalty notice

         Section 31(1) – Exceeding permitted occupancy - £5000 fixed penalty notice

         Section 33(1) – Breach of licensing conditions - £2500 fixed penalty notice

         Section 33(2) – Agent not named on the licence - £2500 fixed penalty notice

         Section 5(2) – Evidence of household notice

         Section 5(5) – Household notice

         Section 71 – Power to obtain information from persons connected to the premises - £200 fixed penalty notice

         Section 72 – Power to require persons connected to the premises to produce documents

         Section 73 – Additional supporting documents

         Section 78 – Powers of entry without warrant

 

3.6    During the financial year 2025/26 a total of £175,600 was paid following the issue of fixed penalties notices across all Northern Ireland Councils of which £120,200 relates to fixed penalty notices served in Belfast.

 

4.0    Financial and Resource Implications

 

4.1    None. The cost of assessing HMO application and officer inspections is provided for within existing budgets.

 

5.0    Equality or Good Relations Implications /

         Rural Needs Assessment

 

5.1    There are no equality or good relations issues associated with this report.”

 

            In response to a Member’s question, regarding the consequences for a landlord who had had enforcement action taken against them, the NIHMO Manager explained that officers had regard to any enforcement action when considering whether a landlord was a “fit and proper person”.  He outlined that the Council had approved an HMO Enforcement Policy in 2019.   The Members were advised that if a Fixed Penalty notice had been served on a landlord and a second offence was committed, the next stage would be to prosecute through the courts.  He highlighted that, if a landlord committed more than one offence, the information would be brought before the Committee for its consideration.  The Members were advised further that, if a landlord was deemed not to be a fit and proper person for one property, they would lose their licences for any HMO properties which they held.  The HMO Manager clarified that offences within the last five years were taken into consideration, as outlined within the Enforcement Policy.

 

A further Member requested that, in future service updates, the HMO figures for previous years be included, in order that the Committee would be able to compare the numbers of applications, refusals and enforcement cases.

 

In response to further questions regarding the time taken from a reported breach to enforcement action, the NIHMO Manager advised the Committee that they had a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to carry out an enforcement visit within 10 days in 80% of cases.  He stated that they were currently slightly under performing on that target but that they were currently short staffed and that would hopefully be rectified shortly.

 

The Director of Planning and Building Control outlined the Planning Enforcement Strategy.  She advised the Committee that the Department for Infrastructure had monitored a KPI target of commencing legal action within 39 weeks in 70% of cases.

 

A number of Members stated that the time taken to prepare cases for court action was clearly time consuming for officers and that it was important that the Council had sufficient resources to meet statutory timeframes without placing an unnecessary burden on staff.

 

A further Member reiterated that the meeting with the three key Departments needed to take place urgently, to discuss the issue of short term lets and the impact it was having on communities.

 

            The Committee noted the activity of the NIHMO service during the financial year 2025/26.