# Administrative and Financial Provisions Act (Northern Ireland) 2026, Section 13: Investigation of housing association tenancy fraud


(1) The Northern Ireland Housing Executive and a registered housing association may enter into arrangements by which the Executive investigates and reports to the association as to—
(a) whether any of the things mentioned in subsection (2) has occurred, and
(b) if so, whether any offence has been committed by any person in connection with that occurrence.
(2) Those things are—
(a) an application for a tenancy of housing accommodation provided by the association being false in a material respect,
(b) the tenant of housing accommodation provided by the association—
(i) ceasing to occupy the accommodation as the tenant’s only or principal home, and
(ii) sub-letting or parting with possession of the whole of the accommodation, or part of the accommodation without the association’s consent, in breach of an express or implied term of the tenancy,
(c) a claim to succeed to a tenancy of housing accommodation provided by the association on the death of a tenant being false in a material respect,
(d) an application for a right-to-buy discount in connection with the acquisition of housing accommodation provided by the association being false in a material respect.
(3) Arrangements under subsection (1) may include provision for or in connection with the meeting by the housing association of any expenditure incurred by the Executive—
(a) under the arrangements, or
(b) anything arising from them (such as the involvement of officers of the Executive in related court proceedings).
(4) In carrying out an investigation under arrangements under subsection (1), the Executive may make such enquiries as it considers appropriate for the purposes of the investigation.
(5) A housing association may disclose to the Executive any information that the association considers relevant for the purposes of the carrying out of an investigation under arrangements under subsection (1).
(6) A report under subsection (1) may include any information regarding the investigation that the Executive considers appropriate.
(7) Nothing in subsection (5) or (6) authorises a disclosure of information in breach of any restriction on the disclosure of the information (however imposed).
(8) In determining for the purposes of subsection (7) whether a disclosure would breach the data protection legislation, the powers conferred by subsections (5) and (6) are to be taken into account.
(9) In this section—
“housing accommodation” has the same meaning as in the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 (see Article 2 of that Order),
“housing association” and “registered” have the same meanings as in Part 2 of the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1992 (see Article 3 of that Order),
“right-to-buy discount” has the meaning given by section 8(2) of the Housing (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2020.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nia/2026/10/section/13 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/administrative-and-financial-provisions-act-northern-ireland-2026/section-13
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.