No fault evictions? You are having a laugh!

I just finished my second no fault eviction in 20 years. It came after three attempts of evicting the same tenant using section 8 (discretionary grounds) over a two year period. The Section 8 failed because the unscrupulous tenant gave the judge false information so he wouldn’t evict.

Meanwhile I had to put up with tenants who denied me access to my property for maintenance and who made false allegations about the state of the property to anyone they could complain to.

When Thatcher brought in Assured Shorthold tenancies, the banks offered to lend against them and landlords took to them as there was a need for housing and banks wouldn’t lend directly to millions of people who needed homes. Thirty years on 5 million shorthold tenancies are currently live. Overtaking 4 million social houses.

Of course there are always unscrupulous people (landlords and tenants) but the landlords have to fulfill a bucket load of tasks and the tenant barely any, yet enjoy protections not available to homeowners (When did your personal home receive an annual gas safety check?). The success of the AST led to just 21,000 bailiffs no fault evictions last year, just 1 in 200 a low figure and testament to a hugely successful system.

At least one of those ‘No Fault’ evictions was where my tenant refused to pay a market rent. They tried to have the rent reduced by claiming false dilapidations to both the council, the civil court and the rent tribunal. They denied me access to repair the property. There was no other ground I could use to remove this unscrupulous tenant. But the biggest misunderstanding by the juvenile government is there is currently no eviction ground for selling a property so many use S21.

The suggestion s21 is done for no reason is deranged? Do people do anything for ‘No Reason’ – if you think about it every little thing we do has a reason. From going to the shops, to work to going for a walk. But now they would have you believe a breed of nasty folk have become landlords and suddenly started a new human trait, evicting people for ‘No Reason’ – seriously? This is beyond absurd.

The elephant in the room is, I imagine most of the non fault evictions are because the landlord wants to sell and there was no eviction ground to do this. The courts have for years overruled legal contracts the tenant signed up to where they have to leave after two months notice. They just don’t leave and the courts support them not least through delays and inefficiency.

Why should landlords offer tenancies forever our circumstances change. Having a forever home is called a mortgage. So come on Banks step up – lend to people who need homes instead of taking a huge slice of rents for doing very little and recklessly putting up charges for landlords.

In effect the new Renters’ Rights Bill will change the two months notice to two years, but then what? Do we enter the hopeless court process? All this government is doing by culling landlords is kicking the can two years down the road, when it will become clear many ‘No fault’ evictions were because the landlord wished to sell or because the landlord is unable to accommodate tenants who break the rules and are too difficult to manage.

The truth is the government know landlords don’t evict for no reason and this reform is simply the enactment of discrimination against us when they should be looking to solve the housing situation. What does the Property118 community think?

Thanks for reading,

Paul

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