Unrestricted access to HMO register to be reinstated

A NARROW majority of ABC Environmental Services Committee members have voted to reinstate online public access to the Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) register.

In doing so, they went against a council recommendation not to reinstate unrestricted access to such sensitive information, the fear being that it might fuel targeted attacks on properties and residents.

They have also voted in favour of reinstating the online HMO application consultation register on December 1. The matter was debated at length at Tuesday’s (November 3) ABC Environmental Services Committee meeting.

The relevant agenda item explained the move to block access to sensitive online information in relation to HMOs had been prompted by the unrest of last June: “The current suspension followed public disorder in parts of Northern Ireland in and around June 9, 2026, during which homes, businesses and vehicles were targeted and damaged in parts of Northern Ireland.

“A number of people were made homeless after their properties were attacked and set on fire by rioters.

“Officers in the Northern Ireland Houses in Multiple Occupation Service (NIHMO) became aware that several HMO properties had been targeted as part of the unrest and therefore, on June 10, an operational decision was taken as a precautionary measure of removing from its website, those publicly available entries from the HMO register as well as the online application consultation register.”

Councillor Keith Ratcliffe (TUV, Cusher DEA) felt strongly the online HMO register should remain available for all to access: “I have serious concerns about the recommendation to continue withholding the HMO register from the public. I think residents have the right to know what’s happening in their own streets and their own communities.

“I fully understand the safety concerns following some of the disgraceful behaviour that we’ve witnessed, but I think the action of some law-breaking minority should not result in information being withheld from law-abiding citizens. For that reason, I cannot support the recommendation.”

Councillor Robbie Alexander (Alliance, Craigavon DEA) pointed out the council’s recommendation still allows access to the register, when there is a genuine reason for wanting to access such information: “It’s not totally withheld. It’s just not being published online.

Openness and transparency are very important, and public safety is very important as well. There is absolutely no doubt that people were using this register to target addresses and target people, and that’s completely unacceptable, and we must protect everybody.”

NI HMO Manager, Kevin Bloomfield explained, by way of clarification, who can currently access the HMO register: “Section 62 of the Act provides a gateway to that information that’s contained within the register, and that’s those persons that own the property, or a prospective purchaser, any tenants of the property, or anyone else that’s sufficiently concerned with an entry in the register.

“An affected neighbour that has been living in a locality, where there’s been antisocial behaviour, that type of issue, they’re concerned about the occupants, the safety of it, they would meet that threshold.”

Councillor Scott Armstrong (DUP, Armagh DEA) was concerned withholding information from the general public might prove counter-productive: “If we are seen tonight to be stopping people from viewing this in a public forum, it could cause more tensions. The good thing about it being accessible to the public is that it shows that nothing’s being hidden.

“It allows for discourse to happen. I think once we stop having that discourse, that’s when violence happens, and my fear would be that if we don’t allow people to view this in a public forum online, people will then start making assumptions and it could escalate into further violence and destruction of properties.”

Councillor Armstrong went on to second Councillor Ratcliffe’s proposal to reinstate public access to the online HMO register.

Councillor Kyle Moutray (DUP, Portadown DEA), who is not a member of the Environmental Services committee, has often expressed concerns over what he sees as the over-concentration of HMOs in the Portadown area.

He told committee members: “There’s a disproportionate amount of HMOs in Portadown when compared to other towns in this borough, and I recently proposed that this council develop its own HMO-specific policy to regulate against their rapid increase.

“So, I find this [council] recommendation [not to allow unrestricted access to the HMO register] particularly concerning, as someone that has used the HMO register in the past to understand the concentration of HMOs in the area that I represent.

“Do we want to afford transparency and openness to the public, or do we want to provide blanket anonymity to HMOs? Reinstating public access promotes accountability. It allows communities to debate HMO concentrations and it helps hold rogue landlords accountable.

“I’ve been in situations before where the police have actually contacted me trying to establish who owns HMOs whenever problems arise, [such as] antisocial behaviour, fly-tipping, noise disturbances, all of those sorts of things. So, that’s exactly why we need an open, transparent register.

“Furthermore, the legislation already provides for individual exemptions where there are genuine concerns about someone’s safety or welfare.

“I am not dismissing any genuine security concerns. But we cannot preach accountability on the one hand while making it harder to identify HMO landlords on the other. The public should not have to suffer in silence while landlords operate behind a veil of secrecy.”

Alderman Paul Berry (Independent, Cusher DEA) believed it was essential for the general public to have access to information pertaining to HMOs, given the concerns often expressed by councillors over their impact on residential areas: “People quite rightly have been deeply concerned about how their neighbourhood has changed over the years.

“I think if we put another blanket ban on this tonight and allow some of those within the investment side of things in our community basically to have a free-for-all and turn properties into HMOs, that could change a street literally overnight.

“Yes, there were houses attacked. We obviously strongly condemn that. But that’s a policing matter and if the police can’t get their house in order, well, it’s not up to us to worry about that, because when one looked at Portadown, Portadown was out of control, and yes, there were attacks in the various streets, but that was because of the total inadequacy of the PSNI in dealing with this matter.

“I think we would raise more questions and concerns than answers if we were to keep this under wraps. I support Councillor Ratcliffe’s motion.”

Alderman Stephen Moutray (DUP, Lurgan DEA) pointed out tenants living in HMOs have rights too.

He commented: “I think we must be conscious of the tenants that live in some of these properties. They have rights too. They have rights to see if the property has been registered, and they also have rights to see what the concentration is in any area.

“We know that there are some parts, particularly of Portadown and North Lurgan, where there is a high concentration of HMOs.

“There was trouble earlier in the year and it was disgraceful, and I would condemn it as much as the next man, but that’s a law-and-order issue. Our issue on this council is, to the best of our ability, to be open, transparent and accountable.”

Councillor Alexander felt public safety issues were matters of serious concerns which warranted restricting access to the HMO register: “I come back to the fact this is a public safety issue. This list was used by people to target homes. That cannot be ignored. That is such a serious problem, and we are potentially creating that problem again further down the road.

“There have been a lot of comments around the fact that this is just a policing issue. That is incredibly short-sighted. We are a council that is responsible for everybody that lives in this borough. We collect money from them, we provide services to them, and we work in partnership with the police to make this borough safer.

“To just fob that responsibility off on the police and then to have a go at the police for not doing it properly, I’m extremely disappointed to hear that sort of thing.

“The register is not being completely locked down. People absolutely have the right to understand what is going on in their communities, and if they have the interest and they want to figure that out, they’re still entitled to contact the council and get that information.

“So, I’m not going to support the proposal that Councillor Ratcliffe and Councillor Armstrong have made. I’m happy with the [council’s] recommendation.

“This is a multi-agency approach that is going to be applied regionally. There’s been a lot of consultation. There’s been a lot of engagement.”

A vote was then taken on Councillor Alexander’s proposal to approve the council’s recommendation to continue restricting access to the HMO register.

It was narrowly defeated, with eight votes in favour of his proposal, and nine against, which means that unrestricted public access to the online HMO register is going to be reinstated.