Tenancy Information Notice in Northern Ireland

What the Tenancy Information Notice Is

The Tenancy Information Notice (TIN) is a written document that every private landlord in Northern Ireland must give to their tenant free of charge within 28 days of granting a tenancy. It was introduced by the Private Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 and the Tenancy Information Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023, which took effect from 1 April 2023.

The TIN is not a tenancy agreement — it's a separate notice that sets out specific prescribed information about the tenancy, the landlord, and the property. Think of it as a fact sheet that ensures the tenant knows exactly who their landlord is, how to contact them, and what the key terms of their tenancy are.

When You Must Serve It

The deadline is 28 days from the date you grant the tenancy. This applies to every new private tenancy created on or after 1 April 2023.

If information in an existing tenancy information notice changes — for example, the rent or the landlord's or agent's contact details — you must give the tenant a free Notice of Variation within 28 days of the change. A rent increase also requires at least three months' written notice, and cannot occur more than once every 12 months.

What It Must Contain

The 2022 Act and its supporting regulations prescribe the information that must appear in the TIN. While the exact template may evolve, the core requirements include:

Landlord identification — your full legal name, your correspondence address, and your landlord registration number. This is where landlord registration directly intersects with the TIN: your registration number under the Landlord Registration Scheme is a required field. If you're not registered, you can't include a valid number, which creates an immediate compliance gap on two separate obligations simultaneously.

Agent details — if a letting or managing agent acts on your behalf, their business name, address, and contact details must be included.

Property details — the address of the rented property.

Tenancy terms — the rent amount, the payment frequency, the date rent is due, the tenancy start date, and whether the tenancy is for a fixed term or periodic.

Deposit information — whether a deposit was taken, the amount, and which approved tenancy deposit scheme protects it (MyDeposits NI or TDS Northern Ireland).

Key rights and obligations — a summary of the tenant's rights and the landlord's obligations under Northern Ireland housing law, including reference to notice periods and the tenant's right to a rent receipt for cash payments.

The Connection to Landlord Registration

Your landlord registration number must appear on the TIN. This is one of several documents where the 2014 Regulations require mandatory display of the registration number — alongside tenancy agreements, rent receipts, rent increase notices, and formal correspondence with tenants.

Serving a TIN without a valid registration number — because you're not registered — doesn't just breach the TIN requirement. It also evidences that you're letting without registration, which is a separate criminal offence under the Private Tenancies (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 carrying fines up to £2,500.

What Happens If You Don't Serve It

Failure to serve the TIN within 28 days is a breach of the 2022 Act. District councils can issue Fixed Penalty Notices for non-compliance with tenancy information requirements. The TIN obligation sits alongside other prescribed information duties — deposit protection notification within 35 days, rent receipts for cash payments, and the mandatory display of your registration number.

In practice, TIN non-compliance most commonly surfaces during tenancy disputes. If a tenant complains to the council about any aspect of their tenancy, the Environmental Health officer investigating will check whether the TIN was served, whether the landlord is registered, and whether the deposit is protected. A missing TIN often accompanies other compliance failures.

Practical Steps

Prepare a template. Create a TIN template that includes your landlord registration number, your standard contact details, and your agent's details (if applicable). Fill in the tenancy-specific fields (rent, start date, deposit amount and scheme) for each new tenant.

Serve it in writing. Verbal communication doesn't count. Use the prescribed notice form and keep a copy with a record of when and how you served it, in case you need to prove compliance later.

Update when terms change. Any change to the information in the TIN — a new agent, a rent increase, a change of address — triggers the need for a Notice of Variation.

The TIN is one piece of a larger compliance picture for Northern Ireland landlords. For the registration process itself — application steps, the joint-owner keycode workflow, fees, the three-year renewal cycle, and where your registration number needs to appear — the Northern Ireland Landlord Registration Guide covers the full process.

See more Northern Ireland guides →