End Section 21 petition gets nearly 50,000 signatures

End Section 21 petition gets nearly 50,000 signatures

9:43 AM, 23rd July 2018, About 6 years ago 25

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A petition supported by the pressure group Generation Rent to “Scrap Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, otherwise known as no-fault evictions” has nearly reached its target of 50,000 signatures.

The 38 Degrees petition is to be sent to the new Housing Minister James Brokenshire.

This would leave private Landlords very little control over their properties and business, reversing the law change that allowed the PRS to take up the slack for council housing that was being sold off and not replaced.

The petition states:

“Right now families in rented homes can be kicked out with just two months notice – without any valid reason. Some end up sharing a single room in temporary accommodation while others have to move miles away from their children’s schools. It’s unfair and its perfectly legal

England is one of the only countries in Europe that allows people to be evicted without private landlords having to give a reason. The threat of being kicked out without doing anything wrong causes insecurity and stress for millions of familes, and makes people suffering shoddy housing scared to complain.

The Scottish government has already acted to protect private tenants by restricting no-fault evictions there. Right now, the government is looking at how they can make renting more secure in England. They could change the law, so people who rent can only be evicted if there’s a valid reason. It’d mean millions of families will have the security of knowing they won’t be forced to move at a moments notice.

We call on the UK government to give renters in England stability and certainty in their homes by abolishing Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988.”

Click here to view the petition


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Comments

Fed Up Landlord

9:57 AM, 23rd July 2018, About 6 years ago

Well done Dan "The Claw" Craw. Clawing away at landlords legal rights until no one invests in residential property. Section 24, stamp duty hikes, letting agent fee ban. What do you want us to do? Let you live in properties rent free, do all the repairs and pay you to live there. Who would do that?

Oh someone already does. It's called the local authority. What's that I hear Dan? They haven't got any houses? Well stop kicking the **** out of the people that do. There's a good boy. Now go along to a local college and do an economics course. Pay special attention to the parts marked " Supply and Demand in the PRS" and "The PRS prior to the 1988 Housing Act", and for good measure "The Irish Experience of Banning The Deduction of Mortgage Interest 1998 - 2002".

Gromit

10:08 AM, 23rd July 2018, About 6 years ago

Can we started our own "Landlords" petition on 38 Degrees to maintain Sec.21?

Can we get 50,000 signatures from the ~2m Landlords out there?

Annie Landlord

10:11 AM, 23rd July 2018, About 6 years ago

As I understand it, the Scottish legislation is quite fair. It continues to allow eviction when there are rent arrears or contravention of the AST's terms, and if the landlord needs to sell or move into the property. Essentially, the main reasons evictions happen! Generation rent continues to convince the general public that landlords regularly evict when tenants request repairs or when they want to increase the rent. None of the research and reports support that premise, but GR relies on sensational and totally unsupported sound bites to further their anti-all-private-landlords-please-give-me-a-house-for-free agenda

Sam Wong

11:02 AM, 23rd July 2018, About 6 years ago

Is there any statistics on the use of Section 21 in the overall scheme of things such as total eviction ?

I happen to think it is wrong to evict tenants for no reason but how many landlords do that just for the fun of it ?

Repeal of Section 21 would be a serious issue for us. One of our buildings is tenanted only with professionals such as doctors and lawyers and engineers until a guy with big biceps who runs a night club biz got in while we were away. He is by and large ok behaviour but looks and dresses a bit intimidating, His visitors are also rowdy and look even more intimidating. Generally sticks out like a sour thumb against the rest of the tenants. We don't have a legally 'valid' reason for evicting him other than that his profile doesn't fit in with the culture and atmosphere with the rest of the tenants which we have spent so much effort to cultivate. It is just the business model we have for this particular building. Is it wrong of me to want to protect my business which I make my living from ?

Dylan Morris

13:23 PM, 23rd July 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by sam at 23/07/2018 - 11:02
What do you mean "he got in while we were away" ? Surely he must be trespassing and you can kick him out ?

Sam Wong

14:31 PM, 23rd July 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Dylan Morris at 23/07/2018 - 13:23
We always eye ball prospective tenants to determine whether we want them to be tenants or not. Our daughter in law, who we hv bn grooming to take over (our sons not interested) our business, made the decision to give him a tenancy while we were away. To b fair, I am personally sympathetic in that I imagine he is one of those trying his best to get to a better place than where he came from (as I did). Just doesn’t know better. Eg he installed a Yale lock on his bedroom door without asking. That door costs more than £700 to buy, the frame costs ano £150 plus £200 to install and £100 to decorate and polish. That was the cost when I refurb the entire building. God knows what it wud b now - assuming replacements can be found.
The issue with the door aside, we were conducting viewings when several of his visitors were just leaving and were having a ‘conference’ in the lobby. We could tell that our prospective tenants were rather unimpressed with the activity n noise level n the ‘quality’ of the source of commotion. There is nothing wrong with being ‘happy’ but there is a time n a place for everything. It just doesn’t fit in with what we have here.

Dylan Morris

14:45 PM, 23rd July 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by sam at 23/07/2018 - 14:31
Sorry to hear that happened. At least looking at it positively it's a good lesson for your daughter in law for when she takes over.

Sam Wong

15:12 PM, 23rd July 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Dylan Morris at 23/07/2018 - 14:45
Thank you.
She is learning.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

15:25 PM, 23rd July 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Annie Landlord at 23/07/2018 - 10:11
The problem with the Scottish system it that it was implemented BEFORE the eviction process was made fair.

Sam Wong

19:44 PM, 23rd July 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Mark Alexander at 23/07/2018 - 15:25
The whole idea abt Section 21 is that a LL can evict without giving a reason. If u hv to give a reason, refer to Section 8. Whether Section 8 grounds r fair or not is an entirely different matter. Besides, u can easily end up with all sorts of arguments with Section 8 whereas u don’t with Section 21. I wud rather compensate the tenant on Section 21 than lose that ability to evict.

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