One In 12 Private Renters ‘Has Received A No-Fault Eviction Notice In Past Year’

One in 12 private renters in England has been given formal notice to move out without a reason since March 2020, a survey has found. Some 8% of private renters in England said they had received a Section 21 notice to quit during the coronavirus pandemic, which allows landlords to evict tenants without needing a reason. While the initial Section 21 notice is only the first stage of the legal process, many tenants move out before the case reaches court, according to Generation Rent, which campaigns on behalf of tenants and released the findings. Read more on the Belfast Telegraph website.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/uk-world/one-in-12-private-renters-has-received-a-no-fault-eviction-notice-in-past-year-40314876.html 

Government’s Housing Plans Are A Crisis Waiting To Happen

Government plans to scrap ‘no fault’ evictions, reiterated in the Queen’s Speech, will dramatically increase the risk faced by private landlords and lead to the loss of thousands of homes in the private rented sector, the National Landlords Association (NLA) has warned. The NLA, which represents 42,000 members, urged the Government to avoid creating an unnecessary crisis in the private rented sector by ensuring that reform of the court process is implemented alongside any change to tenancy legislation. Read why a crisis will occur on the NLA website.

https://landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/governments-housing-plans-are-crisis-waiting-happen

Labour Vows To Cap Rent Rises For Private Tenants

Labour has vowed to "put bad landlords out of business" and bring in rent controls in England, if it wins power. Private rents would not be allowed to go up by more than inflation - and landlords would be fined for letting out sub-standard property. A Labour government would also bring in "open-ended" tenancies, to protect tenants from unfair evictions. The Tories have also set out plans to help tenants - including scrapping "no fault" evictions. Under Labour's "private renters' charter", landlords would face an annual "property MOT", with fines of up to £100,000 or forced repayment of rent if their properties are found to be sub-standard. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50540436

Government Wrong To Say Section 21 Is Leading Cause Homelessness

Claims that landlords’ use of section 21 “no fault” eviction notices is the leading cause of homelessness in the UK are “factually incorrect, misleading and just plain wrong”, says the National Landlords Association (NLA). Research by the NLA, using the Government’s own statistics, found that of 33,020 households assessed by local authorities between October and December 2018, just 11.8 percent (3,890) of those faced homelessness as a result of being served with a Section 21 notice. The same data also showed that the top reason for losing the last settled home was because family or friends were no longer willing or able to accommodate them, which accounted for over 15,000 households. Read more on the NLA website.

https://landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/government-wrong-say-section-21-leading-cause-homelessness-says-nla

MHCLG Launches Section 21 Consultation

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has launched its consultation on abolishing so called ‘no-fault’ evictions and improving Section 8 grounds. It will run for 12 weeks and closes on 12 October 2019. The Government is proposing the removal of Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) from the Housing Act 1988. This would mean that all landlords – private and social – will only be able to offer assured tenancies.  Download the consultation from the MHCLG website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/a-new-deal-for-renting-resetting-the-balance-of-rights-and-responsibilities-between-landlords-and-tenants

Government To End ‘No-Fault’ Evictions In Private Rental Shake-Up

In a significant move by the government, Ms May revealed plans to put in place legislation that would end Section 21 evictions, also known as no-fault evictions. The government has hailed the move as “the biggest change to the private rental sector for a generation”, and said landlords would no longer be able to evict tenants at short notice without good reason. Under current Section 21 eviction laws, landlords are able to give tenants as little as eight weeks notice to leave a property after a fixed-term contract has come to an end. The new legislation would effectively create open-ended tenancies, with landlords being required to provide a “concrete-evidenced reason for bringing the tenancy to an end”. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/government-to-end-no-fault-evictions-in-private-rental-shake-up-61017?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Fixed-Term Tenancies ‘Should Be Scrapped’, Says Thinktank

Fixed-term tenancies for private renters should be scrapped and replaced by mandatory open-ended agreements in order to end so-called “no-fault” evictions, a thinktank has said. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said the law should also be changed to stop landlords evicting tenants within the first three years of a tenancy because they want to sell their home. It made the calls in a report published today urging a major overhaul of the private rented sector. A poll conducted by Sky Data on behalf of the IPPR found that 72% of people believe the government should be doing more to regulate the private rented sector, while 53% feel the current system is unfair on tenants. Read more on the IPPR  website.

https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/sign-on-the-dotted-line

No-Fault Evictions Making Hundreds Of Families Homeless Each Week

Analysis of quarterly eviction and homelessness data by the pressure group Generation Rent suggests that 216 households evicted every week in England under section 21 of the 1988 Housing Act are becoming homeless. These are known as no-fault evictions because landlords do not need a reason such as rent arrears or property damage to kick tenants out. The end of a private tenancy is now the single biggest cause of homelessness in England, with the number of cases more than trebling from 4,580 to 16,320 between 2009 and 2017. The analysis reveals for the first time that 94% of this rise can be blamed on no-fault evictions, which have more than doubled since 2009. Read more on the Observer website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/18/no-fault-evictions-hundreds-of-families-homeless-each-week

Corbyn Pledges To Scrap 'No Fault' Evictions

Labour’s next manifesto will include a pledge to reduce eviction powers for landlords and tip housing rules back in favour of renters, Jeremy Corbyn has announced. The Labour leader said at the next election his party would overhaul housing legislation by scrapping laws which allow landlords to kick out tenants under so-called “no fault” evictions.  It is claimed that the contentious practice – allowing landlords to evict renters on a whim and without reason – has contributed to the alarming rise in homelessness since the creation of the coalition government in 2010. Read more on the Independent website.

Rising House Prices Fuel Tenant Evictions

Rising house prices aren’t just making it harder for private renters to save up to buy their own home, says Generation Rent – it’s likely to get them evicted too. A study carried out on the organisation’s behalf is claimed to have found that rising house prices appear to fuel tenant evictions, as landlords seek to ‘cash in’. The findings have prompted Generation Rent to call for greater protections for tenants from no-fault evictions. According to the study a 10% rise in house prices sees a subsequent 60% rise in evictions of private renters. Private tenants in England are now 2.5 times more likely to be evicted without their landlord giving a reason than they were during the 2009 recession, the organisation claims. Read more on the Generation Rent blog.

One In Four Private Tenants Kicked Out For No Reason

A quarter of tenants have been kicked out of their homes at the whim of their landlords and through no fault of their own. Private renters across Britain lack legal protections from so-called “no fault” eviction where a landlord decides to move them on without having to give a reason. A survey of UK private renters by BMG Research found that 27 per cent of current and past private tenants had been evicted by a landlord who wanted to sell, refurbish, or change the use of a property, or because of a rent increase. The most common reasons for tenants losing their home are the landlord deciding to sell up (14 per cent) or raising the rent so high it becomes unaffordable to remain (7 per cent). Read more on the Independent website.