Jeremy Corbyn wants to scrap ‘No Fault’ evictions in England and Wales

Jeremy Corbyn wants to scrap ‘No Fault’ evictions in England and Wales

9:56 AM, 28th December 2017, About 6 years ago 33

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Jeremy Corbyn told The Independent that in his next Labour manifesto he would pledge to change housing legislation so that tenants could not be asked to leave under ‘no fault evictions’. Click here to read the full article.

Recently Scotland has already abolished fixed term tenancies for private renters giving tenants indefinite tenure.

Corbyn was using DCLG figures to claim the number of households accepted by local authorities as homeless, because they have come to the end of a fixed term AST has risen from 4,580 in 2009-10 to 18,270 in 2016-16.

Corbyn said: “I am very committed to housing and dealing with homelessness. I think it’s a moral litmus test for the country: do we just put up with so many rough sleepers or do we do something about it.

“What we would do is bring in a more regulated private rented system with particular emphasis on longer tenancies. It’s a power relationship that is not remotely fair. Every other country in Europe has some degree of private sector regulation. Most cities in the United States do with the odd one out and this was abolished, basically, by the Thatcher government.

“As you know I’ve spent a lot of my life very concerned about housing and remain so. At the moment we have a largely deregulated private rented sector in Britain and people can be evicted or have their tenancy terminated at the end of six months for no reason whatsoever.

“The stress levels on people concerned is incredible. I get it all the time from constituents, because a third of my constituents are private renters. I am very determined to bring some order and stability to their lives by longer tenancies and eviction that can only be there for good reason rather than just what can be retaliatory eviction.”

This is ignoring the fact that under the Deregulation act there are now rules against retaliatory eviction and that most landlords much prefer good tenants to stay for longer and generally encourage them to do so by only putting rents up if they absolutely have to.

Corbyn went on with a political point saying: “Rights for tenants to remain in a property were reduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1988 Housing Act, which included Section 21, and tipped the power relationship in favour of the landlord. Until this point tenants could remain in their homes as long as they had done nothing wrong, with extra protection for families.”

 


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Comments

AA

10:54 AM, 28th December 2017, About 6 years ago

This is "news ?" Fellow landlords south of the border may have looked at the Scottish model and said to themselves "interesting"
"never happen here" but I will take bets on "no fault evictions being outlawed" coming to your area very soon.

Luke P

10:55 AM, 28th December 2017, About 6 years ago

The rest of Europe’s tenants have far greater responsibilities…will they be implemented too? Thought not. I will exit the industry if this happens as s.8 is not fit for purpose, nor are the Courts able to act quickly enough. Someone else can pick up the pieces.

Steve Masters

11:16 AM, 28th December 2017, About 6 years ago

"...people can be evicted or have their tenancy terminated at the end of six months for no reason whatsoever."

There is ALWAYS a reason why a landlord wants to go to all the expense and trouble to evict a tenant from the property he has invested 10's or 100's of thousands of pounds into.

If the courts wont help me protect my life's work, I will be be forced into something drastic to protect myself.

Tobias Nightingale

11:59 AM, 28th December 2017, About 6 years ago

No such thing as rogue tenants in corbyns book is there. I mean FFS. People droan about £50 billion or so in rents that tenants hand out every year yet little was and continues to made of the report that stated tenant damages equate to £9 billion a year. And corbyn sometimes has the cheek to say big companies are effecting the cash flow of small ones by not promtly paying but when a tenant can withold 2 months worth of rent before ANYTHING can be done thats fine and presumabily should be increased further still I suppose?

and when things that would be seen as a rightwing plot in this country is seen as 'normal' in europe but I again corbyn could not care less.

Paul Shears

12:03 PM, 28th December 2017, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Steve Masters at 28/12/2017 - 11:16
I could not agree more.
This is certainly pushing me over the precipice.
Yet another empty headed government policy which will achieve the complete opposite of the headline claims.
It's just too much aggro from my point of view.
I will be looking to evict over the next two years, if not sooner, as a direct consequence of both this and previous attacks by the state on landlords.
Having travelled to some 25 countries, I have noted that a very large number of them do not recognise the rights of an individual over his own property, especially housing. That fact alone has made me instantly lose all interest in putting any property investment into a country.
We are certainly heading the same way at a very fast pace.

Dominic Ferard

12:32 PM, 28th December 2017, About 6 years ago

This is great news for professional landlords. It drives out buy-to-let investors and small time players (and doubtless many lenders too) who will be, quite reasonably, scared about their ability to recover possession. Less supply will mean higher rents. Bring it on!

Paul Shears

13:17 PM, 28th December 2017, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by David Smith at 28/12/2017 - 12:32Perhaps I am misunderstanding the situation. I thought this meant that no property owner can regain possession of his property unless the tenant is braking the terms of the proposed government controlled terms of contract. The tenants have permanent possession as long as they abide by the terms of the contract. The contract cannot be terminated by the landlord at all. Have I misunderstood this? If not then the investor loses even more control of their investment.
Otherwise how can any landlord ever recover possession?

Dominic Ferard

13:21 PM, 28th December 2017, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 28/12/2017 - 13:17
Yes that is what it means. But if the tenant is paying their rent and abiding by the terms of the tenancy, why would a professional landlord want to get them out? It would be a different matter of course if rent control was re-introduced.

John Frith

13:52 PM, 28th December 2017, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by David Smith at 28/12/2017 - 13:21
"why would a professional landlord want to get them out?"
How about the landlords retirement, divorce, emigration, wanting to switch to a different area or kind of property, wanting to redevelop the property, wanting to get out of the business?
I would be interested to hear factual assessments of how often tenants are asked to leave for reasons personal to the landlord. Not that the facts are likely to get in the way of the tide of anti-rogue landlord sentiment, even if it is a fiction.

Paul Shears

14:05 PM, 28th December 2017, About 6 years ago

There must be an infinite number of potential reasons why a landlord might want to regain possession of his property. The mind boggles!

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