Shelter demands 12 months of no re-letting in new Bill

Shelter demands 12 months of no re-letting in new Bill

9:50 AM, 11th July 2023, About 10 months ago 56

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The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee has been told that the Renters (Reform) Bill needs strengthening to prevent landlords from using a loophole to evict tenants for no reason.

The follow-up meeting heard that under the proposals, the law will enable landlords to take possession of their rented property when they or a family member want to move in or to sell it – and there will be a period of three months when the property cannot be re-let.

However, Shelter’s policy manager Tarun Bhakta told the committee that the Bill offers ‘a backdoor to ‘no-fault’ evictions’ and he said the no re-letting period should be longer.

He told the committee: “This is a big concern of ours, at the moment a landlord won’t be allowed to put the property back on the market for three months.

“We don’t think that is a strong enough disincentive when misusing those grounds, particularly when you consider that it might be quite difficult to design quite robust evidential requirements for the landlord moving in. It’s really difficult to imagine what that would look like, but we want the government to try their best.”

’12 months for no re-letting is what we are recommending’

He added: “We think there needs to be strong disincentives via the no reletting period so 12 months for no re-letting is what we are recommending.”

And when tenants believe they have been wrongly evicted, tenants should be able to seek compensation and rent repayment orders – and tenants should be given an incentive to bring a case of wrongful eviction to a local authority.

In response, an irritated Ben Beadle, the chief executive of the National Residential Landlords’ Association, said: “This isn’t roulette. It gets tested in court, it goes before a judge, a judge will need to be satisfied that the landlord is telling the truth about selling the property.

“And the last time I checked, if you lied in court, it was perjury so I would say that was a pretty strong disincentive.”

He added: “I don’t know what it is what my friend from Shelter wants to see, whether it is waterboarding or public flogging, but a financial penalty of £30k if you re-let sounds to me to be a lot of money and I think we have to look through the lens of why landlords are selling and the confidence levels in the sector are where we should start rather than having 12 months punishing waits and lots of extended notice periods.”

Turning to Mr Bhakta, Mr Beadle said: “And, actually, do your clients a great disservice.”

Below is Mr Beadle’s response to Mr Bhakta’s comments:

Watch the full committee exchange on Parliament.tv


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Comments

Mick Roberts

9:20 AM, 13th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 11/07/2023 - 17:54
I don't even look at stuff any more until it's in, there is that many changes, it bamboozles me. But I've seen this many times which you have mentioned:
ground 8 remains substantially unchanged apart from the new provision in relation to arrears caused by delays in receipt of universal credit.

This cannot be right, are they really saying we can't evict if the arrears are from UC?
Cause they will be saying We can solve this if u/we talk to UC. Whereas us Benefit Landlords know this is nigh on impossible. Yes, we could solve if we could send simple email to UC common sense person, but DWP doesnt do common sense.

Seething Landlord

9:48 AM, 13th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 13/07/2023 - 09:20
Copied from the explanatory notes to the Bill:
Paragraph 21 amends ground 8 of Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 so that if a tenant’s arrears

are only because a Universal Credit payment that they are entitled to has not yet been paid, they
cannot be evicted.
Background
612 Ground 8 of Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 requires a court to award possession if a tenant
owes over 2 months’ rent at the time the landlord initiates possession proceedings and at the time
of the court hearing. This change will protect benefit claimants who have met the mandatory ground
only in the gap between their entitlement being established at the end of their assessment period
and their benefits payment arriving. This may happen on a recurring basis if the timing of their
payment does not align with the date rent is due.
Example: Missing rent due to the wait for Universal Credit payments
A tenant with no savings loses their job and applies for Universal Credit (UC) the next day. It will
not be established if the claimant will receive an award of UC until the end of their monthly
assessment period. Any award will then take up to 5 days to be paid. It is feasible that in this period
they could miss two monthly rent payments, becoming at risk of eviction through no fault of their
own. This provision means that the rent missed because of the 5 day wait for the UC payment at the
end of the monthly assessment period will not be counted when calculating how much arrears the
tenant owes, protecting the tenant in this example from mandatory eviction.

Smiffy

11:14 AM, 13th July 2023, About 10 months ago

it is actually our own fault, for too many years landlords have been using S21 to get rid of problem tenants.

We need to be honest and evict tenants for the true reasons, if it is rent arrears or damage, evict them for it, and claim for the rent or damages regardless of whether you get it. Give them the CCJ they deserve.

If we keep taking, and giving, the easy option, nobody wins long term.

Seething Landlord

11:46 AM, 13th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Smiffy at 13/07/2023 - 11:14
"for too many years landlords have been using S21 to get rid of problem tenants"

I agree with this. Using S21 to avoid the limitations under S8 has played into the hands of those who claim that S21 evictions are unfair.

Mick Roberts

13:28 PM, 13th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 13/07/2023 - 09:48
Thanks. Yes, some of us Benefit Landlords could live with that, but many won't.

Other problem is, UC Housing Element sometimes just doesnt start cause UC gets the rules wrong and won't talk to Landlord. Do we wait 2 years?

Happy housing

7:18 AM, 15th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by dismayed landlord at 11/07/2023 - 10:12
True right why don't they claim down on tenant not paying. Section 8 notices should go on record instead of them making paper aeroplanes out of them

Robin Pearce

7:38 AM, 15th July 2023, About 10 months ago

In 30 years as a landlord with numerous properties I've always had good tenants so I've never evicted anyone.
Why after all would I want to evict a good tenant resulting in a vacant property earning no rent?🤔
Shelter are trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.
Thus revealing how poor their grasp of the real world is 🙄

LaLo

9:14 AM, 15th July 2023, About 10 months ago

A property sitting empty = no income = no income tax = less money in the government purse = madness! Simple.

Happy housing

9:16 AM, 15th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Yes this will never happen, there will be no btls on the market for sure

dismayed landlord

9:26 AM, 15th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by LaLo at 15/07/2023 - 09:14
Exactly. Who wins?

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