May

‘Ministers must change course on evictions reform or risk serious consequences’

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A group representing all the key stakeholders in the private rented sector has warned the government that abolishing Section 21 evictions will not achieve the goals that the government, and groups like Shelter, hope to achieve.

The Letting Industry Council group includes over 50 representatives from the sector including Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action, Chris Norris of the NRLA and senior figures from Belvoir, Rightmove, UKALA, Knight Frank, Hunters, Dexters, Savills, Martin & Co, Goodlord, MyDeposits and Propertymark, to name a few.

Their new report, which is in response to the proposals for the PRS within the recent Queen’s speech, warns that abolishing section 21 eviction notices is ‘not the ultimate answer’ to resolving the issues of tenancy insecurity.

Read our report on the Queen's speech.

“Rental properties are investments and landlords prefer to have an occupied property rather than risk a void period, with statistics showing that the majority of tenancies are ended by the tenant, not the landlord,” the reports says.

“However, we accept that the Government have committed to do this and we have to come together as an industry to find the best way of introducing this far-reaching change and avoid unintended consequences.”

The TLIC report also warns that abolishing section 21’s effectively abolishes Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) and that, apart from losing landlord confidence, which is a serious concern, it will change the entire working model of an AST for all concerned.

“For tenants, this will mean that landlords become more risk adverse and that those with lower incomes and poor rental history will be rejected in favour of higher-income renters with a satisfactory rental history,” the report says.

Instead, TLIC recommends that Ministers:

Enable faster possessions where a tenant has clearly ‘abandoned’ a property
Reduce the backlog of eviction cases stuck in the courts including via the hiring of more judges.
Priorities cases which involve high or persistent rent arrears and drop the ‘review hearings’ introduced during Covid.
Make mediation recommended in all possession cases.

Other recommendations by TLIC include:

Introducing a bond or guarantee scheme for tenants who struggle to scrape together a deposit.
Using Unique Property Reference Numbers or UPRNs to join up all the data about properties and landlords into one place.
Launch an industry-wide regulator to oversee a system of letting agent regulation, property MOTs, a property register as well as both tenant and landlord redress.

“This report seeks to find a balance between encouraging investment in the sector to increase available homes and ensure they are of consistent good quality through natural supply and demand competition,” says Theresa Wallace, Chair of TLIC (main pic).

Read the recommendations of the group in full.

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