Tenants face being unfairly evicted ‘every 15 minutes’ this summer – claim

A tenant activist group is making a wild claim that renters face being unfairly evicted from their homes this summer because of Government inaction.

The claim is being made by Generation Rent which says that the delayed Renters (Reform) Bill will lead to ‘unfair evictions’ despite a government pledge to outlaw them.

The group says that since 2019, when the Government first proposed ending Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions, nearly 61,000 s21 court proceedings have been started by landlords.

This has led to landlords ‘turfing tens of thousands of families out of their homes with no need to give a reason’.

‘Make sure that renters can stay in their homes’

Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “We are calling on the government to act now to schedule the Renters (Reform) Bill‘s Second Reading debate as soon as possible when Parliament next sits and to make sure that renters can stay in their homes with their rights fully protected.”

He adds that ‘no more summers should be ruined by unfair evictions’ despite a promise made by the Government ‘to outlaw arbitrary evictions’.

One Section 21 claim made every 15 minutes

Generation Rent has calculated that there will be one Section 21 claim made every 15 minutes over the six-week summer holiday.

And that could see ‘potentially 3,787 unfair evictions before children go back to school and Parliament reconvenes’.

The group says that tenants have no ability to challenge a valid section 21 notice so ‘many more move out before their case reaches court’.

It adds that as many as 90 Section 21 eviction notices could be issued every day over the summer holidays.

‘Many families will no longer be able to afford to rent’

Mr Twomey said: “Recent soaring rises in rents on new tenancies mean that many families will no longer be able to afford to rent near their children’s schools if they are evicted.

“Delays in Parliament are leading to despair across the country.

“Urgent action is needed to end unfair evictions and Generation Rent will keep not stop campaigning until renters are protected.”

The group is urgings its supporters to contact their MP to not only back the Bill, but to help bring it before Parliament as soon as possible.