What you pay on a Northern Ireland rental, who gets the rates bill, what you have to do before a property goes on the market, and which parts of the Private Tenancies Act 2022 have actually come into force.
Buying. A rental purchase attracts Stamp Duty Land Tax, filed and paid to HMRC. On an additional property costing £40,000 or more the higher rates apply, and they have sat 5 percentage points above the standard rates since 31 October 2024: 5% to £125,000, 7% to £250,000, 10% to £925,000, 15% to £1.5 million and 17% above. A buyer who has not been in the UK for at least 183 days in the previous 12 months adds 2 points on top. A company buying a single dwelling for more than £500,000 pays a flat 17% unless a relief applies, and property rental business relief is the one most buy-to-let companies use.
The profit. Rental profit is taxed at 20%, 40% and 45%, with the personal allowance at £12,570 and the additional rate starting above £125,140. From 6 April 2027 property income gets its own rates of 22%, 42% and 47%, two points higher, and the Section 24 finance cost reducer moves to 22% at the same time. Making Tax Digital is already live: over £50,000 of qualifying income from 6 April 2026, over £30,000 from 6 April 2027 and over £20,000 from 6 April 2028, with quarterly updates on 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May.
Selling. Capital gains tax is 18% within the basic rate band and 24% above it, the annual exempt amount is £3,000, and both the report and the payment fall due within 60 days of completion. Run any of it on the stamp duty calculator, the Section 24 calculator or the Making Tax Digital checker.
Rates
This is the cost most often missing from a letting budget, because most landlords assume the occupier pays it. Land & Property Services bills domestic rates, and the person responsible depends on the value of the property and on what it is used for. The landlord is liable where a domestic property's capital value is £150,000 or less, where a non-domestic property's net annual value is £1,590 or less, or where the property is a house in multiple occupation — three or more tenants from two or more families — at any value. Above £150,000 the tenant is liable, unless the landlord has agreed to pay under an Article 21 application.
There are two landlord rating accounts. An Article 20 account is the automatic one, for the properties where the law puts the bill on the landlord. An Article 21 account is voluntary: a landlord signs up to pay the rates on all of their rented properties and pays a discounted amount, provided it is paid in full by the due date. Either way the rates you pay on a let property are an expense of the letting business.
One more thing to watch: Land & Property Services can recover a tenant's unpaid rates from the landlord, and where a tenant's Housing Benefit Rate Relief or Rate Rebate does not cover the bill, or is later reclaimed, the shortfall is the landlord's. So the rates on a let property are worth posting to that property as they are paid, rather than reconstructed at the year end — it is a deductible cost, and on a low-value flat it is a meaningful slice of the rent.
The 2022 Act
The Private Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 received Royal Assent on 27 April 2022 and amends the 2006 Order. It has been brought in a few sections at a time over four years, which is why landlords here disagree about what the rules are: both of them are often describing a real section of the same Act, on different sides of a commencement date. The Department for Communities owns the legislation, the courts administer it, and the councils enforce it.
| Section | What it does | In force from |
|---|---|---|
| 1 and 2 | Tenancy information notice to the tenant | 1 April 2023 |
| 3 | Written receipt for any payment made in cash | 1 April 2023 |
| 4 | Deposit capped at one month's rent | 1 April 2023 |
| 5 and 6 | Longer deposit time limits, and deposit offences made continuing offences | 1 April 2023 |
| 7 | Regulation of rent — one increase in twelve months | 1 April 2025 |
| 8 | Fire, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms | 1 December 2024 |
| 9 | Energy efficiency regulations | Not yet in force |
| 10 | Electrical safety standards | 1 April 2025 |
| 11 | Longer notice to quit periods | Not yet in force |
| 12 | Payment options for tenants | Complete — report laid and published |
The two unstarted sections are the ones people most often assume have already happened. Section 9 is the energy efficiency power: until the Department makes regulations under it there is no minimum EPC band to let a property here, so the band C deadline you may have read about is not yours. Section 11 would lengthen the notice a landlord has to give. The Department has said it can only commence once regulations set out the circumstances in which the longer periods would not apply, and that an equality impact assessment and a consultation were still to come — so the periods below are the ones in force now.
Rent and notice
Since 1 April 2025 a landlord cannot increase the rent within twelve months of granting the tenancy, or within twelve months of the last increase, and must give three months' written notice — which can be an email or a text. A second increase attempted inside the twelve months has no legal effect: the rent remains unchanged and the increase cannot be enforced in court. A mistimed notice is not simply late, it is nothing, so the anniversary and the three months are worth diarising against each tenancy.
These periods have applied since 5 May 2022. They are minimums, in writing, and they do not by themselves end a tenancy: eviction needs due process and, where a tenant does not leave, a court order.
| Length of tenancy | Landlord must give | Tenant must give |
|---|---|---|
| Not more than 12 months | 4 weeks | 4 weeks |
| More than 12 months, up to 10 years | 8 weeks | 4 weeks |
| More than 10 years | 12 weeks | 12 weeks |
Before it goes on the market
Working together
We act for landlords across Northern Ireland — Antrim and Newtownabbey, Ards and North Down, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, Belfast, Causeway Coast and Glens, Derry City and Strabane, Fermanagh and Omagh, Lisburn and Castlereagh, Mid and East Antrim, Mid Ulster, and Newry, Mourne and Down. Two of those councils carry a job for the whole country: Belfast City Council runs HMO licensing on behalf of every council, so a licence application in Newry or Coleraine goes through Belfast, and Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council has held the landlord registration database since April 2025. If your properties are in Belfast itself, the Belfast page goes further into the city.
The work is the same work we do anywhere: quarterly updates and the records behind them, property pages on the tax return, bookkeeping per property, the incorporation question, company accounts and capital gains tax before you exchange. It runs remotely, over phone, video and email. What you do not have to do is explain the ground rules — that the rates bill is yours, that the HMO licence comes through Belfast whichever county the property is in, or which sections of the 2022 Act are actually in force.
We do not advise on whether to buy, sell, refinance or gear a property. That is an investment decision, and mortgage advice is regulated and belongs with a broker. Tell us what you own and where and we will reply within one working day with a fixed monthly fee.
On the same dates as everywhere else, because it is HMRC's scheme and is not devolved. Landlords whose qualifying income was over £50,000 on the 2024 to 2025 return were mandated from 6 April 2026, over £30,000 follows on 6 April 2027 and over £20,000 on 6 April 2028. Qualifying income is gross rent before any expense or mortgage interest, and property and self-employment income are added together to test it, so £45,000 of rent and £12,000 of self-employment is £57,000 and is already in. Quarterly updates are due on 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, and no tax is paid with them. What changes here is what goes into the figures: if the rates bill is yours, it is an expense of the letting.
There is no council tax here, and the answer is often the landlord rather than the tenant. Land & Property Services bills domestic rates, and the landlord is responsible where the property's capital value is £150,000 or less, where a non-domestic property's net annual value is £1,590 or less, or where the property is a house in multiple occupation — three or more tenants from two or more families — at any value at all. Above £150,000 the tenant is liable unless the landlord has agreed to pay under an Article 21 application. Landlords billed directly hold an Article 20 or Article 21 rating account, and Article 21 carries a discount for paying in full by the due date.
No. There is no minimum band to let a property in Northern Ireland. The power to set one is section 9 of the Private Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, and at 21 September 2026 the Department for Communities still lists that section as in progress, so no regulations have been made under it. An Energy Performance Certificate is still needed before a property is advertised, it must go on the Northern Ireland EPC Register, and it has to be shown to anyone viewing. The band E minimum and the band C deadline of 1 October 2030 that appear in most online landlord advice are England and Wales rules and have no effect on a property here.
Once in any twelve months. Since 1 April 2025, section 7 of the Private Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 has stopped a landlord raising the rent within twelve months of granting the tenancy, or within twelve months of the last increase, and requires three months' written notice of the increase. The notice can be an email or a text message. If a second increase is attempted inside the twelve months it has no legal effect, the rent stays as it was, and it cannot be enforced in court. Plan the increase around the anniversary and the three months, because a mistimed notice does not simply take effect late — it does nothing.
The Private Tenancies (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, as amended by the Private Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 2022. That is the whole of it. The Department for Communities owns the legislation, the courts administer it and your council enforces it, which is why a complaint about a deposit or a tenancy notice goes to the council's environmental health department. Worth knowing because most landlord advice online is written for England without saying so: the Renters' Rights Act 2025, the end of Section 21, the private rented sector database, the landlord ombudsman, the Decent Homes Standard and selective licensing are all English and none of them reaches a tenancy here.
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