No fault evictions? You are having a laugh!

No fault evictions? You are having a laugh!

9:38 AM, 23rd September 2024, About 3 weeks ago 35

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I just finished my second no fault eviction in 20 years. It came after three attempts of evicting the same tenant using section 8 (discretionary grounds) over a two year period. The Section 8 failed because the unscrupulous tenant gave the judge false information so he wouldn’t evict.

Meanwhile I had to put up with tenants who denied me access to my property for maintenance and who made false allegations about the state of the property to anyone they could complain to.

When Thatcher brought in Assured Shorthold tenancies, the banks offered to lend against them and landlords took to them as there was a need for housing and banks wouldn’t lend directly to millions of people who needed homes. Thirty years on 5 million shorthold tenancies are currently live. Overtaking 4 million social houses.

Of course there are always unscrupulous people (landlords and tenants) but the landlords have to fulfill a bucket load of tasks and the tenant barely any, yet enjoy protections not available to homeowners (When did your personal home receive an annual gas safety check?). The success of the AST led to just 21,000 bailiffs no fault evictions last year, just 1 in 200 a low figure and testament to a hugely successful system.

At least one of those ‘No Fault’ evictions was where my tenant refused to pay a market rent. They tried to have the rent reduced by claiming false dilapidations to both the council, the civil court and the rent tribunal. They denied me access to repair the property. There was no other ground I could use to remove this unscrupulous tenant. But the biggest misunderstanding by the juvenile government is there is currently no eviction ground for selling a property so many use S21.

The suggestion s21 is done for no reason is deranged? Do people do anything for ‘No Reason’ – if you think about it every little thing we do has a reason. From going to the shops, to work to going for a walk. But now they would have you believe a breed of nasty folk have become landlords and suddenly started a new human trait, evicting people for ‘No Reason’ – seriously? This is beyond absurd.

The elephant in the room is, I imagine most of the non fault evictions are because the landlord wants to sell and there was no eviction ground to do this. The courts have for years overruled legal contracts the tenant signed up to where they have to leave after two months notice. They just don’t leave and the courts support them not least through delays and inefficiency.

Why should landlords offer tenancies forever our circumstances change. Having a forever home is called a mortgage. So come on Banks step up – lend to people who need homes instead of taking a huge slice of rents for doing very little and recklessly putting up charges for landlords.

In effect the new Renters’ Rights Bill will change the two months notice to two years, but then what? Do we enter the hopeless court process? All this government is doing by culling landlords is kicking the can two years down the road, when it will become clear many ‘No fault’ evictions were because the landlord wished to sell or because the landlord is unable to accommodate tenants who break the rules and are too difficult to manage.

The truth is the government know landlords don’t evict for no reason and this reform is simply the enactment of discrimination against us when they should be looking to solve the housing situation. What does the Property118 community think?

Thanks for reading,

Paul


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Mick Roberts

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10:34 AM, 23rd September 2024, About 3 weeks ago

Very well said.
When we signed the tenant up 20 years ago, where did it say
You can have this house forever?
We didn't sign up to this
It's called RENT.
Someone decipher that in the dictionary.
I'm doing Section 21 as we speak, doing a log on it to publish when finished.
Started May, still about 4 months away at least.
My tenant moved out, said I could sell the house. Sold the house. Tenant moved back in unbeknown to me and buyer. I've lost the buyer

JaSam

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10:41 AM, 23rd September 2024, About 3 weeks ago

"It came after three attempts of evicting the same tenant using section 8 (discretionary grounds) over a two year period"

Be interested to know what discretionary ground(s) you went after?

Why you chose a discretionary ground instead of a S21 in the first place?

And with the new changes in the reform Bill what path would this have been with the removal of S21?

TheMaluka

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11:06 AM, 23rd September 2024, About 3 weeks ago

"The suggestion s21 is done for no reason is deranged?"

Forgive me for being picky, but surely this should have been a statement, not a question?

Cider Drinker

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12:59 PM, 23rd September 2024, About 3 weeks ago

They could ensure that (good) private tenants have the security of tenure they deserve by making the PRS attractive to investors.
If the PRS was attractive to investors, landlords would be able to sell to other landlords and (good) tenants could stay in their homes.
As it is, my kids don’t want to inherit tenanted properties because the law is an ass. My tenants will have to leave sooner or later and this causes me sleepless nights.

Godfrey Jones

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14:00 PM, 23rd September 2024, About 3 weeks ago

First we need a Tenant register. We won't get one but there will be a Landlord register because Landlords are easy targets. But have you thought about the Tenants from Hell who after many months of not paying rent, terrorising neighbours, and totally wrecking Landlord's property are eventually evicted under Sec 21? LA's don't have homes to rent them and Landlords have no way of checking so they are perfectly free to do exactly the same to some other poor unsuspecting Landlord. We need a Tenant register.

TheMaluka

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14:11 PM, 23rd September 2024, About 3 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Godfrey Jones at 23/09/2024 - 14:00
NEVER take any tenant who qualifies, or is likely to qualify, for legal aid, this pretty well excludes all benefit tenants, shame, but it is what Shelter and Generation Rent have campaigned for all these years.

The Forever Tenant

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14:41 PM, 23rd September 2024, About 3 weeks ago

It honestly feels like they want to get rid of S21 because it's being used for reasons that are covered by other grounds. It's obvious why, it's easier and it works.

One of the unfortunate things is that like GR and Shelter et al, you've gotten hung up on the wording and arguing about it from one side.

With section 21, you are right, there is a reason why you are issuing. But that reason may have nothing to do with your tenant. You absolutely have the right to evict the tenant from your property for any reason that you wish, but you are directly affecting another person/family and making their life worse through your choices.

Comments from people like TheMaluka really don't help. Look at what you are saying. Is that the impression that you want the general public to have of landlords?

Cider Drinker

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15:26 PM, 23rd September 2024, About 3 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by The Forever Tenant at 23/09/2024 - 14:41
I’m with you TFT.

Most landlords want (and need) good tenants. A good tenant is one that looks after the property in a tenant-like manner and pays the rent in full and on time. This ensures the landlord can pay the BTL mortgage, gas & electricity safety and many other bills that keeps the property available.

However, there are many bills that the landlord needs to pay that deliver little or zero benefit to the tenant. Bills such as Selective Licensing (a tax by another name), Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Council Tax (when the property is vacant because a tenant has trashed it before leaving with rent arrears), additional property Stamp Duty Land Tax, Value Added Tax on any repairs and services.

Lots of taxes listed there. The Treasury does rather well from the PRS, don’t you think? That is, the Treasury does rather well from the private tenant, don’t you think? After all, any cost that the landlord incurs for the property are rightly passed on to the tenant (the only person using the property).

If only the PRS was taxed less.

If only it was seen as a good investment

Only then would landlords that wish to exit the sector be able to sell to another landlord - with the tenant in situ.

I’ve never issued Section 8 nor Section 21 notices. I hope that I never need to. However, like many landlords, age is a factor. My kids don’t want to inherit tenanted properties because taxes are too high and they have seen the stress that a bad tenant can impose on a landlord.

I am 9 months in to fixing a property that a tenant trashed. The cost of recovery is 5 years worth of gross rent or approximately 15 years on net rent.

Good tenants deserve bette tenancies. Bad tenants deserve to be dealt with swiftly.

Freda Blogs

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15:30 PM, 23rd September 2024, About 3 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by The Forever Tenant at 23/09/2024 - 14:41
And the actions of a tenant don’t affect a LL, and in your words “directly affect[ing] another person/family and making their life worse through [your] choices”?
On Property 118 we read many horror stories of how tenants have gone into arrears, trashed the property, refused to leave etc.
Would you appreciate why many LLs don’t want to risk that - whether in the current S21 age or after it is removed - because the odds (and the Courts) are so heavily skewed in a tenant’s favour. When a LL could be bankrupted or lose many £000s of his hard-earned pension to such a tenant?
Many LLs are of an age where it is time to sell, and I for one don’t want to go through that cost and stress. Having provided good homes to many tenants over the years, there comes a time when LLs need to make decisions for themselves, and housing tenants indefinitely was not part of the contract we signed up to, nor is it our responsibility.
Our decision to sell may affect tenants’ lives, and it may also be uncomfortable for them - and not what any good LL would choose - but let’s not forget that the housing crisis is not of our making, and the problems/fears of not obtaining possession are also fuelling the problem. The Government ‘s neglect of housebuilding and its myopia over S21 is damaging the futures of both LLs and Tenants..
As housing providers LLs are part of the solution to the housing crisis; we are not the problem, and should be encouraged and appreciated, not vilified. It is not right to make LLs the scapegoat here, having to bear all the costs and risk to house tenants and not expect tenants to uphold their end of their contractual responsibility.

Peter Merrick

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15:33 PM, 23rd September 2024, About 3 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 23/09/2024 - 10:34
Always get it in writing from the tenant that they have ended the tenancy and left. Then change the locks immediately, which you can do yourself in about 10 minutes for about the same number of pounds. Then if they return they should be trespassing.

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