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

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

Share This Article