I would like to provided clarity over what constitutes a Revenge Eviction, and what is simply a landlord serving notice without giving a reason, after concerns have been raised that the term was being misused in the media, giving good landlords a bad name.

The Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) recently revealed that twice as many people had reported problems with being evicted, despite not being in arrears, in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013. Whilst this correlates with the rise in landlords wishing to evict under Section 21 accelerated possession proceedings (36,000 in 2013) I am keen to stress that this is not Revenge Eviction, but simply a change in the Buy to Let market which is being driven by increasing sale prices and a lack of social housing. This year Landlord Action has seen a record rise in accelerated possession proceedings from landlords being forced to evict, because tenants want to be re-housed by the council.

Revenge or Retaliation eviction was a term recently coined to describe a minority of rogue landlords taking advantage of the system and issuing a Section 21 notice to rid themselves of tenants, instead of carrying out disrepair works. This is something which the Government is looking to address at a later date.

However, this should not be confused with a landlord’s right to exercise a Section 21 notice simply because they would like their property back. The housing market is strong at present and naturally many landlords, a large percentage of which were accidental landlords in the first place, have decided that now is the time to cash in their chips. For others, personal circumstances may have changed meaning they now require the rented property to live in themselves.