Delighted as Revenge Eviction Bill is defeated

Delighted as Revenge Eviction Bill is defeated

10:20 AM, 29th November 2014, About 10 years ago 47

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The Tenancies Reform Bill presented by Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather and aimed at stopping Revenge Evictions, has failed to secure enough votes to pass in Parliament, much to our relief at Landlord Action and other industry organisations.Paul Shamplin of Landlord Action

This is great news for landlords. Whilst I fully agree that tenants need to be protected from the small minority of rogue landlords, there simply wasn’t enough evidence to support the need for more legislation, which would have impacted a large number of good, reliable landlords.

In the 24 years I have been dealing with problem tenants, I have only ever heard of the words Retaliation or Revenge Eviction in the last 18 months. Section 21 gives a landlord an automatic right of possession without having to give any grounds (reason) once the fixed term has expired. Shelter’s figures that 213,000 tenants have been served Section 21 notices as revenge evictions must be guess work because without surveying every landlord, it is hard to understand how they have reached this figure.

A recent survey of landlords that had instructed Landlord Action to serve Section 21 notices revealed that only 2% had served a section 21 because the tenant had asked for repairs. 28% served notice because there were rent arrears and 15% needed the property back so they could sell, 13% needed to move back into the property, 11% wanted to re-let to another tenant to obtain more rent and 8% said the tenant wanted to be evicted so they could be re-housed by the Council.

Passing this Bill would have created a loophole for tenants to remain in properties for longer, lead to further rental arrears problems, stretched the resources of local authorities even further and lead to longer delays at court. Yes, we want to make sure tenants live in a safe and pleasant environment, but preventing the proper use of Section 21 is not the way to do this and would simply tarnish good landlords with a bad name.

We at Landlord Action would like to acknowledge the hard work carried out by RLA in relation to this Bill.

Contact Landlord Action

Specialists in tenant eviction and debt collection. Regulated by The Law Society.


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Comments

Ian Ringrose

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15:21 PM, 1st December 2014, About 10 years ago

Today in the Evening Standard (http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/stoke-newington-flats-small-revenge-eviction-toilet-in-shower-music-studio-audio-underground-9894559.html) “Tenants of Stoke Newington flats so small that toilet is IN the shower evicted 'after complaining over heavy metal noise'”

Most weeks it has a report along the same lines; a lot of MPs read the Standard.

As the demand for rental properties in London increase, people are being forced to rent from the worse landlords.

John MacAlevey

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16:12 PM, 1st December 2014, About 10 years ago

Why cannot we combine bad tenants with bad landlords..? seems logical to me.
Legislation to control landlords behaviour is likely to be far easier than controlling tenants behaviour..always was..always will be.

Monty Bodkin

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16:30 PM, 1st December 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Rosalind " at "01/12/2014 - 15:15":

You keep mentioning 'donations' -you do realise they are also significantly tax payer funded? (page 39)

http://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/924416/2013-14_Shelter_Annual_Report_and_Accounts.pdf

Thought that'd cheer you up 🙂

Dr Rosalind Beck

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16:14 PM, 2nd December 2014, About 10 years ago

Thanks Monty - that was an interesting link. It showed that of about £55 million income Shelter received annually around £25 million comes from donations and the rest from Government, councils etc. (I only took a quick glance this morning). The reason I was focusing on the donations side was that when I did a search on Shelter yesterday to try and find out what they were saying about their expensive, failed campaign against us, as landlords, I couldn't find anything. I just kept seeing their 'donations page,' which of course does not say that they waste lots of money attacking housing providers, whether they be private landlords or councils and other social housing providers. They seem to see attacking housing providers - including often helping tenants when we take them to court, while they fund the legal bills - as somehow 'providing shelter'... It's a very twisted idea and so wasteful of both statutory and private funds. Which leads me onto my IDEA OF THE DAY. Wouldn't it be great if, as landlords, we could get together and raise a significant amount of money for a charity which does provide shelter? It would also be quite nice to then publicise this and point out how we are providing more free shelter than Shelter?? Anyway, the idea is in its nascent stages. I'm good at ideas but rubbish at their execution. What do people think?

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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17:00 PM, 2nd December 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Rosalind " at "02/12/2014 - 16:14":

Such a charity already exists, it is called The Salvation Army.
.

Dr Rosalind Beck

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18:18 PM, 2nd December 2014, About 10 years ago

Mmm. Not sure about the religious bit, though... What about 'Crisis'? I don't know anything about them other than that they do 'Crisis at Christmas.'
Also: I'm thinking how the donations could somehow be charted as coming from landlords and how we can get the message across to landlords to do this as a constructive response to Shelter constantly slurring our reputations.

Alan Loughlin

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10:54 AM, 6th December 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Julie Ford" at "01/12/2014 - 08:57":

there are far far more rogue tenants than rogue landlords, yet these are rarely mentioned, just landlord bashing, easy target I suppose.

Alan Loughlin

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10:57 AM, 6th December 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Monty Bodkin" at "01/12/2014 - 16:30":

give nothing to shelter as they ate solely a landlord bashing group, totally biased, and as for the salvation army, well when they drop the evangelising then come back to me, but till then not a penny.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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11:31 AM, 6th December 2014, About 10 years ago

When has anybody ever come across the Sally Army evangelising in public? It doesn't happen!

Yes they are a Christian organisation and if you go to one of their services then expect to hear preaching of a Christian message.

DO NOT under-estimate the work they do to help the homeless though and to reunite lost souls with their families.

My Grandparents were devout Salvationists. My Grandfather was a pacifist so refused to bear arms in WW2. Instead he was on the spotlights in the Coventry Blitz and a stretcher bearer at Dunkirk. He survived both. I will never under-estimate the courage and commitment of these people. My Grandmother never had a penny to her name as she gave everything to support the Salvation Army. I was humbled though when 1,00's of people attended her funeral which was conducted as if she had been Royalty.

They are the only Charity I give money to now. At Christmas, I look for the band in the local town and deliberately find an old lady with a blue rinse (like my Nan). I then cram the entire contents of my wallet into her collection tin (usually around £200) and watch the reaction. This happened to my Nan several decades ago and she told the same story pretty much every day to everybody she met until the day she died.

PS - I do not practice any religion.
.

Alan Loughlin

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11:38 AM, 6th December 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "06/12/2014 - 11:31":

sorry but disagree, all religion is a force for evil, just look at the news each day, this group like all religious groups has a hidden agenda, just like the church does in schools, a brainwashing exercise. Fortunately the younger generation has twigged to the deception, and want nothing to do with it, the trend is very clear, and accelerating. I always avoid giving to any group that practices deception, which is most of the charities sadly.

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