The government says it wants to ban outright Section 21 ‘no fault’ eviction powers in England and Wales.
Instead landlords seeking to evict tenants would have to use Section 8, which can be implemented when a tenant has fallen into rent arrears, has been involved in criminal or antisocial behaviour or has broken terms of the rent agreement, such as damaging the property. The government says it will amend Section 8 to allow it to be used by landlords if they want to sell the property or move back in themselves. Unlike S21, tenants can challenge S8 evictions in many cases.
So, the Government have announced plans to abolish Section 21s in a bid to create open ended tenancies in the sector.
Ive never met a landlord thats evicted a tenant for no good reason – the vast majority of evictions, in my experience are for rent arrears and ASB.
Landlords evicting tenants and moving back in to the property are as common as an honest politician!
This is purely an attempt by the government to hang onto it’s vote bank – Remember, sensationalism sells papers/news!
Must admit, its never been clearer that the Government really dislike small landlords and agent and are trying to regulate the sector to their advantage, not the consumer.
Whilst on the face of it, it sounds like a good idea, this is actually going to be a disaster for renters. 🙁 Here’s why:
1) With of course some exceptions, as a rule landlords DON’T evict good tenants who pay their rent and look after their property. So landlords are going to be even more wary of letting to tenants who don’t have exemplary references, meaning marginal tenants who can’t buy won’t be able to rent either = homelessness.
2) There’ll be a flurry of evictions before this comes into force. The vast majority (62%) of landlords only have 1 rental property. Either as a pension saving, intending to sell in a few decades time, or perhaps they’re in a temporary job abroad, or have moved in with a new partner and are renting out the “spare” property, typically as a safety net in case the new relationship doesn’t pan out. Faced with the possibility of never being able to ask the tenant to leave, they’ll get rid now, resulting in thousands of unnecessary evictions.
3) Because of (2) thousands more properties will flood onto the market, depressing an already stagnant housing market. Everyone will be poorer when house prices start falling.
4) Due to reduced rental supply and pickier landlords, rents will rise.
I hope that the government will make haste of their housing courts and reduce waiting times for landlords for the hearings: if the landlord does end up with an underperforming tenant, then it is only right that in return for all of these changes the landlord is rewarded with a swifter possession than the case is now.
Yes there are some landlords who are gits, as there are a few bad eggs in every population, but the vast majority of the 100+ landlords I’ve met, are decent honest people who want to provide quality homes to decent tenants.
Take my own situation: I’ve been a landlord for 6 years now and I have *never* been to court to evict a tenant. Sure I’ve asked a few to leave, either for rent arrears (£4,000 for example) or for anti-social behaviour (drug dealing and stealing) but it’s always been sorted out before court action was necessary.
This knee jerk reaction to a few breathless “no fault eviction” tabloid stories will only punish renters by trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. The reality is that the vast majority of tenancies are ended by tenants themselves.
This is tabloid politics at its worst.
Removing Section 21 on its own is purely a Vote bank saving headline. If the government really want the system to work, the special housing courts should be well staffed, managed and run and complementary changes need to be made to Section 8. In the absence of these two, I see a disaster looming.
Any landlord looking to rent a property short terms will soon not be able too, forced to rent Indefinitely unless adequate NEW grounds are given like those that were issued in Scotland
In Scotland tenancies are now open ended and have no end date, similar to the “Assured Tenancy” and the same it appears will be the same here
We foresee that without additional provision for landlords that “need” their properties back this will lead to a further reduction in the already dwindling housing stock and a further tilt in supply and demand,
A further restriction in supply and risk for landlords will likely lead to again even more rises in rent and as a result tenants suffering
In December 2017, Scotland section 33 (their version of section 21) was no longer allowed for no fault possession, however the government added a few extra grounds for possession for when a landlord has “reasonable cause” such as needing to sell the property, move back in or refurbish.
The abolishment of the section 21 has been campaigned for by so many organisations I am not surprised by this move and have been discussing this for some time (as anyone who has been in any of my rooms knows)
Let’s hope the government listens and gives landlords the ability to get their properties back when “needed” because in reality that is what most of them do anyway…
Let us know what you think. Do you have an opinion on the matter?
© 2018 All rights reserved
Powered by Elite IT Solutions