Delighted as Revenge Eviction Bill is defeated

Delighted as Revenge Eviction Bill is defeated

10:20 AM, 29th November 2014, About 10 years ago 47

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The Tenancies Reform Bill presented by Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather and aimed at stopping Revenge Evictions, has failed to secure enough votes to pass in Parliament, much to our relief at Landlord Action and other industry organisations.Paul Shamplin of Landlord Action

This is great news for landlords. Whilst I fully agree that tenants need to be protected from the small minority of rogue landlords, there simply wasn’t enough evidence to support the need for more legislation, which would have impacted a large number of good, reliable landlords.

In the 24 years I have been dealing with problem tenants, I have only ever heard of the words Retaliation or Revenge Eviction in the last 18 months. Section 21 gives a landlord an automatic right of possession without having to give any grounds (reason) once the fixed term has expired. Shelter’s figures that 213,000 tenants have been served Section 21 notices as revenge evictions must be guess work because without surveying every landlord, it is hard to understand how they have reached this figure.

A recent survey of landlords that had instructed Landlord Action to serve Section 21 notices revealed that only 2% had served a section 21 because the tenant had asked for repairs. 28% served notice because there were rent arrears and 15% needed the property back so they could sell, 13% needed to move back into the property, 11% wanted to re-let to another tenant to obtain more rent and 8% said the tenant wanted to be evicted so they could be re-housed by the Council.

Passing this Bill would have created a loophole for tenants to remain in properties for longer, lead to further rental arrears problems, stretched the resources of local authorities even further and lead to longer delays at court. Yes, we want to make sure tenants live in a safe and pleasant environment, but preventing the proper use of Section 21 is not the way to do this and would simply tarnish good landlords with a bad name.

We at Landlord Action would like to acknowledge the hard work carried out by RLA in relation to this Bill.

Contact Landlord Action

Specialists in tenant eviction and debt collection. Regulated by The Law Society.


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Comments

Seething Landlord

10:48 AM, 8th December 2014, About 9 years ago

Why is this thread descending into a platform for anti religious bigotry?

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

10:48 AM, 8th December 2014, About 9 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "John MacAlevey" at "08/12/2014 - 09:47":

Gentlemen

Whatever your religious or atheist beliefs, this is not the place to share them. May I remind you that Property118 exists to facilitate the sharing of best practice in the Private Rented Sector.

Sadly, as human beings our ego's are the primary cause of abandonment of morals. It can emanate from our passion for a football team, greed for natural resources, religious beliefs and many other things. Extremists will kill to prove another person wrong in order to satisfy their own ego's or greed. If you disagree with another person then be the bigger person, follow your morals and share the above thoughts if you understand them. The more people who do that, the better chance the human race has to end wars, violence and suffering. If you are willing and able to preach anything, preach morality.

Nobody should be homeless and as landlords we are all able to play our part in being the solution to varying degrees.
.

Alan Loughlin

11:33 AM, 8th December 2014, About 9 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Jamie Moodie" at "08/12/2014 - 10:27":

have downloaded it onto my kindle, looks interesting, not sure most people realize the threat from within.

Alan Loughlin

11:34 AM, 8th December 2014, About 9 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Seething Landlord" at "08/12/2014 - 10:48":

COMMENT DELETED BY MODERATOR

Monty Bodkin

11:38 AM, 8th December 2014, About 9 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "08/12/2014 - 10:48":

"Whatever your religious or atheist beliefs, this is not the place to share them."

Agree completely.

This thread may be read by influential people trying to form an opinion on the issue.

The diverting posts are not doing landlords any favours.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

11:49 AM, 8th December 2014, About 9 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Alan Loughlin" at "08/12/2014 - 11:34":

Sorry that I had to delete your last comment, please see my last post.
.

Dr Rosalind Beck

13:16 PM, 8th December 2014, About 9 years ago

I'd like to bring it back to how we are supposed to lobby the House of Lords. Anyone have an idea of how to get started on this? We're looking at a possible amendment going in in January; we don't have a lot of time.

John Frith

16:26 PM, 17th December 2014, About 9 years ago

There is a (to me) glaringly obvious point that I've not heard mentioned.

Why on earth would a landlord do a "retaliatory eviction" of a rent paying tenant to avoid a repair? It would probably involve:

1) a period without rent
2) for most landlords there would be the extra expense and / or effort of finding a new tenant, and
3) I would feel I would have to make the repair anyway in order to make it fit for prospective tenants to view!

Even without No. 3, 1 & 2 would probably cost more than the repair!

I suspect Retaliatory Eviction is a made up issue. Has anyone come across a real-life, documented cases? Then we could propose better ways to deal with those real-life examples.

Alan Loughlin

16:28 PM, 17th December 2014, About 9 years ago

probably a Shelter tactic, maybe we should have a concerted campaign to show these up for what they are, fat salaries, and useless.

Ian Ringrose

16:37 PM, 17th December 2014, About 9 years ago

If a landlord is taking tenants on housing benefit without asking for much if any deposit and doing no reference checks, then re-letting regardless of the state of the properly often only takes 1 or 2 days!

The bottom end of the market is just not like what respectable landlords are used to.

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