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There has been much talk recently of the possibility of changes to the no-fault eviction legislations, and the potential scrapping of the section 21 notices.
Croydon Council have recently become the first local authority to pledge their support to this scheme, which calls to bin no fault evictions in a bid to give renters more power and security in their homes. A similar pledge to that which was made by Labour Shadow Housing Minister John Healey at the recent Labour party conferences (read more about that here https://www.urban.co.uk/landlord-university/landlord-news/party-conferences-call-for-shake-up-of-prs/).
The council became the first authority to formally back the ‘End Unfair Evictions’ campaign, which is headed up by tenant group Generation Rent.
The biggest cause of homelessness in Croydon is evictions in the private rental sector. With Croydon having lost around 70% of its budget since 2010, we are struggling to deal with the scale of this problem, and it is unacceptable that private landlords are able to evict vulnerable tenants so easily, leaving the public sector to pick up the bill.
Alison Butler, Croydon Council cabinet member for Homes & Gateway Services
The campaign, which is supported by a public petition which currently has over 50,000 signatures, is also being backed by the London Renters Union, ACORN and the New Economics Foundation. Additional support is given by organisations such as the Salvation Army and Crisis.
Landlords in Scotland will already be familiar with the scrapping of the no-fault eviction, following the changes made to the sector at the end of 2017. There’s no section 21 available in Scotland now, with a landlord only being able to apply for possession if they cite one of 18 grounds for repossession. This method is being showcased as a fairer way to operate by many, and there are whispers that should S21 be binned, we could be looking at a UK-wide roll out of this system. Full details on this scheme is available here - https://www.urban.co.uk/landlord-university/advice/countdown-to-prs-changes-in-scotland/.
There is a school of through however, that many landlords choose the section 21 route as the alternative options (section 8) take far too long to go through the court process, and are not as reliable.
The proposals don’t address the real reason that the section 21 no fault possession process is used so much, which is that the courts are so overloaded that the preferred section 8 procedure, citing grounds for ending the tenancy, has become uncertain, time consuming and expensive.
Richard Lambert, CEO of the National Landlords Association
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