The government has announced plans to make it easier for landlords to evict anti-social tenants who make their neighbours’ lives a nightmare.

In its newly published Anti-social behaviour action plan, it said that landlords and law-abiding tenants will benefit from ‘stronger laws and systems to ensure those who are persistently disruptive are evicted’.

The government added that will give landlords the tools to ensure that anti-social tenants face the consequences of their actions.

These include:

• Making grounds for possession faster and far easier to prove, so that landlords can take immediate action.
• Ensuring all private tenancy agreements include clauses specifically banning anti-social behaviour – making it easier for landlords to use the breach of tenancy ground to evict anti-social tenants.
• Making the notice period two weeks for all anti-social behaviour eviction grounds as part of its reforms for renters.
• Expanding the discretionary eviction grounds, to make anti-social behaviour easier to prove in court: clarifying that any behaviour ‘capable’ of causing ‘nuisance or annoyance’ can lead to eviction.
• Speeding up the process of evicting an anti-social tenant by working with the courts to explore how to prioritise anti-social behaviour cases.

Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns at Propertymark, said: “It is encouraging to see the UK government acknowledge that there is an issue with anti-social behaviour within communities and after calling for reform we are pleased to see the Action Plan include measures to speed up the eviction process and support landlords and agents to gather evidence.

“Given the lack of capacity in the existing court system, we reiterate our call for a dedicated housing court to ensure better access to justice for landlords and tenants. A key element is ensuring that tenant behaviour can be better evidenced in court and the cases of most concern are prioritised.”