NRLA proposal on anti-social behaviour accepted by the Government

There is already a way of tackling this. It is called "Section 21".

Any other route will involve police attendance and witness statements from neighbours to provide evidence to the court.

We own blocks of flats where we have suffered from anti social behaviour and can say that 99% of the time other tenants are too intimidated to put any complaint on the record. We allocate part of our portfolio to housing homeless people through a local charity and in most cases this is the launchpad people need to get their lives back on track. We provide good quality modern housing and we've had many success stories but have had cases of a seemingly pleasant tenant associating with gangs of drug dealers, who visit, sometimes with aggressive dogs, throughout the day and night. Other tenants have reported shouting, swearing, fighting, drug use and loud music in the middle of the night but they are way too scared to report it to the police or provide a witness statement for the courts. The worse the anti social behaviour the more intimidated other tenants are. Without S21 to remove problem tenants the decent tenants would simply leave and nobody else of any calibre would want to live there so these modern well maintained properties would end up as slums.

Sadly if/when S21 is abolished we will not be offering any more vacant flats to homeless people and we are already moving some of them out while we can, so I've no idea where they will live, which is a shame.

We're trying to help people who need help, but the abolition of S21 will make it far too risky so we will only house people with home owning guarantors once S21 has gone.

When will Shelter, Generation Rent and the Govt recognise that landlords do not evict tenants without good reason. Why would any landlord spend time and effort finding a tenant, creating a tenancy agreement and moving them in, only to move them out again for no reason, leaving an empty property not earning any rent? The mere suggestion is ridiculous and yet the government have accepted it as fact.

One of the issues that needs to be addressed is how you prove antisocial behaviour. How does a Landlord prove this without the risk of it being mis-used by dodgy Landlords?

If it only covers those that have an ASBO then it won't work at all. Will it need Police involvement? Many times neighbours will not complain to the Police or to the council (Even anonymously) for fear of harassment or violence from the perpetrator. If the Landlord contacts the Police they just brush it aside and say the victim must report the issue.

Reply to the comment left by KH at 16/11/2022 - 11:53Well,you beat me to it and your lengthier comment much better illustrates the issue.
How is so difficult for some people to grasp this?

How on earth can this possibly be effective in the HMO situation.

Do tenants have to report a crime if someone uses their milk? Acts wierdly etc.

Reply to the comment left by KH at 16/11/2022 - 11:53
This is a fine example of the reasoned analysis, evidence and warning that needs to be brought to the attention of Government.

So the NRLA's 'proposal' is this peach...

"...to convene a meeting of key stakeholders representing landlords, tenants, the police, local authorities and others to develop plans to ensure swift and effective action can be taken against anti-social tenants."

That already exists, Ben, you wet lettuce! It's called the community trigger...

[Jump to the 'How it Works' section]

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/anti-social-behaviour-asb-case-review-also-known-as-the-community-trigger

Reply to the comment left by KH at 16/11/2022 - 11:53KH, your points and examples match the concerns we raised in our 2021 paper on the unintended consequences of revoking S21 and relying on a strengthened S8 ground for antisocial behaviour.
In our proposal, which we sent to all English and Welsh MPS, iHowz recognised the Shelter Gen Rent argument about notice periods and inconvenience where a longer term tenant is served S21 for reasons of the landlord's convenience.
https://ihowz.uk/the-unintended-consequences-of-losing-the-section-21-notice/
In the initial hearing of the levelling up committee and the second hearing, plus iHowz's discussions with civil servants, it is clear that no one has a workable alternative to S21, especially for antisocial behaviour, and mediation is unsuitable where the relationship has already broken down.
Mediation is a wonderful ideal, likely to founder on the reef of reality.
What landlords want to hear is that
- S21 will remain available at least until
- new / revised S8 grounds have been implemented and their efficacy proven, and
- court processes and times have improved to ensure a timely and reliable outcome
Let's not forget, it's not just the PRS who have antisocial tenants and serve S21 notices, social landlords do too. Perhaps that's why the government still avoids providing the breakdown of S21 notices served by sector in its monthly statistics.

I thought it was the job of the police and courts to tackle antisocial behaviour - oh, that's right, there aren't any! So a landlord now has to be a policeman, a magistrate, an immigration officer and I suspect often a replacement for the nanny state