0:04 AM, 24th January 2025, About 2 hours ago
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Lambeth Council is facing a legal action after issuing eviction notices to hundreds of tenants living in properties rented on the private market.
A resident of the Central Hill estate in south London has filed a claim for Judicial Review against the council.
They argue that its decision to evict tenants from around 160 homes leased to a council-owned company, Homes for Lambeth Living Ltd, is unlawful.
The controversy stems from Lambeth’s estate regeneration programme which involved creating HfL Living, a private sector landlord, to rent council-owned properties at market rates.
However, the council has now decided to bring these properties ‘back in-house’ with vacant possession and is evicting all current tenants.
Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) solicitor, Alexandra Goldenberg, who represents the claimant, said: “Lambeth’s decision to rent these properties on the private market is unlawful and has created a devastating impact on hundreds of residents across the borough who have been evicted or are facing eviction.
“This is yet another chapter in a troubling history of estate ‘regeneration’ schemes that have disregarded the rights of residents and communities.”
She adds: “It is time for Lambeth to take responsibility and do the right thing, starting with an immediate halt to all evictions.”
The case argues that the council should not have been renting homes in the private rented sector under assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs).
The claimant says that Lambeth Council, not HfL Living Ltd, is their landlord.
PILC says that Lambeth Council claims it wants to use the homes for those with ‘the most urgent housing need’.
However, it points out that the council has failed to consider that this is precisely what HfL tenants will become if the council evicts them.
They contend that the council should not have used ASTs because local authorities are legally prohibited from doing so.
This arrangement, the claimant argues, has resulted in Lambeth Council granting tenancies that are legally invalid, leaving residents vulnerable to Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions.
The law firm also says that Lambeth insists that, as private renters, HfL tenants ‘will simply be able to move elsewhere, yet that assumption appears to be incorrect’.
One HfL tenant said: “None of us were told we were renting from the council, or that Lambeth saw it as a short-term solution.
“On the contrary, we asked and were assured we’d be able to stay here long-term.
“This decision seems hypocritical as it’s going directly against Labour’s promise to ban Section 21 evictions, and Lambeth is a Labour-led council.”
The council has until February 5 to respond to the claim.
A judge will then determine whether the case will proceed to a full hearing.
Lambeth’s eviction of tenants featured in a Commons debate on 14 January:
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