Good Morning Sir /Madam, please find reply to your FOI request below.

There were 56 Private Tenancy complaints from 23/3/20 to 31/10/20.

During the period  March and June there were very few complaints – most
were advisory type ones - people asking for advice or contacting their
housing provider to ask when repairs were likely to take place.

From June onwards all complaints were visited if necessary - mostly
external repairs.

From July/August many more complaints and requests for housing inspections
were received and inspections were carried out taking precautions such as
wearing face masks and keeping 2m distance from the occupant of the
property.

All complaints were dealt with appropriately and with action taken where
necessary.

During this period there were 12 eviction / harassment queries re NTQ,
advice etc and one of those were actually evicted due to fault in sewerage
provision which could not be repaired in reasonable time period and
tenants were able to move to alternative accommodation through existing
letting agent within that week.

Tenant complains of unfitness/poor conditions                
                                                                                               
                                                                        27

- Report that deposit has not been protected                    
                                                                                               
                                                                         1

- Report that no rent book has been provided                   
                                                                                               
                                                                         0

- Report of unregistered landlord 3

- Report of harassment by landlord or representative
                                                                                                       
                                                                        11

- Report of attempted unlawful eviction (tenant issued with no or
incorrect notice to quit, LL threatens to remove tenant, change locks
etc)                                1

- Report of actual unlawful eviction (tenant evicted other than by EJO,
locks changed etc)

- Report in regards to HMO accommodation (unlicensed, suitability,
overcrowding etc)

- Requests from Landlord
                                                    
                                                                                               
                                                                       13

-Covid                                                                                   
                                                                                               
                                                                        1

-Asbestos
enquiry                                                                 
                                        
                                                      
                                                                        
1                    
                                                                                               
                                                                                               
                 1

TOTAL                                                                                    
                                                                                               
                                                                        56

Should you require any clarifacation please do not hesitate to contact me

Kind Regards

Donal P McLaughlin

E H Manager

07710 823835

LCCC process all personal data that you provide in accordance with the UK
Data Protection Act and the EU General Data Protection Regulations.  For
further details please visit our website.

From: E Farrell <[FOI #704344 email]>

Sent: 06 November 2020 14:51

To: Freedom of Information

Subject: Freedom of Information request –

Council's duties in regards to private rented housing

Dear Lisburn and Castlereagh District Council,

1. Please explain how COVID-19 has impacted on the fulfilment of the
council's duties in regards to private rented housing in the Lisburn and
Castlereagh District Council area.

2. In particular, please provide details of the number of complaints in
regards to the issues listed below and the council's response to these
complaints (e.g. physical inspection, informal warning, fixed penalty
notice, prosecution).

3. Where no action was taken, please set out the reasons (e.g.
time-barred, complaint dropped, insufficient resources to
investigate/enforce, no substance to complaint).

- Tenant complains of unfitness/poor conditions

- Report that deposit has not been protected

- Report that no rent book has been provided

- Report of unregistered landlord

- Report of harassment by landlord or representative  

- Report of attempted unlawful eviction (tenant issued with no or
incorrect notice to quit, LL threatens to remove tenant, change locks etc)

- Report of actual unlawful eviction (tenant evicted other than by EJO,
locks changed etc)

- Report in regards to HMO accommodation (unlicensed, suitability,
overcrowding etc)

Yours faithfully,

E Farrell

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