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Landlords slam ‘misleading and plain wrong’ government eviction claims

Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Christina Hoghton
Posted:
Updated:
15/08/2019

Proposals to ban ‘no fault’ evictions have angered landlords, who say the current court system for evicting problem tenants isn’t fit for purpose

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has slated the government over its claims that use of section 21 eviction notices is the leading cause of homelessness in the UK.

The government is currently consulting on its plans to abolish ‘no fault’ evictions, having suggested it is driving homelessness across the country.

However, the NLA said that having analysed the government’s own statistics, such claims were “factually incorrect, misleading and just plain wrong”.

It noted that of 33,020 households assessed by local authorities between October and December last year, around 11.8 per cent of those that faces homelessness did so as a result of being served with a section 21 notice.

It pointed to the fact that this data found that the top reason for losing the last settled home was due to family or friends no longer being willing or able to accommodate them, which accounted for almost half of those households.

The NLA argued the data showed that the second most common reason was the end of an assured short hold private rented tenancy, which included tenancies ended using section eight notices ‒ where a reason needs to be given.

Richard Lambert, chief executive officer of the NLA, emphasised that no reasonable landlord would seek to evict a tenant without good cause, noting that most evictions were a symptom of wider issues such as the freeze on local housing allowance, insecure jobs or the lack of support for vulnerable tenants.

He continued: “The increase in the use of no-fault evictions through section 21 is because landlords simply don’t have faith in the courts being able to deal with eviction cases, however justified their reason.

“Landlords are running businesses and have very few options when it comes to managing the risks they face. The focus should instead be on fixing the issues that contribute to this risk.”