Theresa May announces she will ban section 21

Reply to the comment left by Neil Patterson at 15/04/2019 - 13:43
“Getting this new legislation through parliament is critical to people being able to stay in their rented home as long as they need ...". They may "need" to stay there but if they don't pay the rent, wilfully damage the property or are anti social landlords should be able to evict them quickly.

At lunch today one of our junior members of staff commented that the abolition of section 21 would be good for people like her. She rents with her boyfriend. "But it won't be good for you" I said. "Why's that?" "Because rents will go up as landlords get out of the market." Stunned silence. She will not be alone. Tenants don't realise that making tenancies less flexible and making landlords jump through hoops to get their properties back has consequences.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 15/04/2019 - 13:37Don’t think it’s an election ploy Mike. There’s no way the Tories are going to vote for a general election (they’d be desimated) and May would need 2/3 of the Commons to vote for it under the Fixed Parliament act. Also there is no way she could lead the Tories into a general election as she promised in order to win the no-confidence vote back in December, that she would not do this. I know she doesn’t keep her word on anything, but I seriously don’t think she would get away with that. So IMO I just cannot see a general election on the cards, even though the media is trying to convince us otherwise.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 15/04/2019 - 15:17
I suspect if rents increase too high and too fast as a result of landlord exiting the market, the next step for the government will be to introduce rent control.
All governments regardless of their leaning/stance play the numbers game when it comes to votes, and there are more tenants than landlords. I've said it before and it seems more evident than ever, no one really cares about the plight of landlords!

This is absolutely disgusting, and there are literally no winners here. And to think I voted Conservative for fear Labour might do this. Betrayed doesn't even begin to describe it. Any tenant who is smiling now needs to think on. All mine will be facing eviction in the next few weeks before this comes in. I can't take the risk of never getting my property back when I need to sell, so good as my tenants are, they'd better hope there are landlords out there who would be happy to take a risk of never getting their property back because of tenant's good behaviour.

Reply to the comment left by Paul T. Guest at 15/04/2019 - 12:49
Paul, our mortgage conditions state the maximum length of a tenancy I can offer is 12 months. The decision is often not down to the landlord. I have assured our tenants that if they do not breach the terms of their AST I'm very happy to renew their tenancy ad infinitum.

Reply to the comment left by Heather G. at 15/04/2019 - 16:45Heather G.
Most professional landlords are prepared to renew ad infinitum if tenants pay rent and behave. But there will need to be exceptions:
1. Landlords wanting their home back after working elsewhere;
2. Landlords wanting to sell (very hard to carve out an exception for this without it covering every case). How will it be policed?
3. In my area of HMOs, the obnoxious tenant who upsets other housemates, causing them to leave, but isn't clearly in breach of the tenancy. For example we had a tenant with a "voluble girlfriend" whose repeated nocturnal activities - up to 4 nights a week - disturbed the tenants in the rooms below. How am I supposed to get him out using section 8? Come round at midnight with a tape recorder? How much nookie is too much for others to have to listen to?

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 15/04/2019 - 16:57
Hi Ian

Brokenshire told the BBC News presenter that landlords wishing to sell would have to produce evidence to a court.

We need to get some real stats to support our cause that could hopefully dispel the misinformation being touted by the various factions. I know there are bits and pieces out there but it is is now becoming urgent if we want to get the truth across before the government bungles another piece of vote-winning, ill-thought-out legislation. Therefore, I call on all the landlord organisations to work together to obtain some concrete figures and propose that research is undertaken that covers: how many properties we each have, with on average how many tenants; how many S8s served; how many S21s served (how many of these were for a breach and how many due to sale or moving back in); average length of AST; how many properties you've sold since S24 and what % was due to the government making changes to the PRS; how many properties are you planning to sell due to government changes in the next 1, 2 and 3-5 years. The results would hopefully rebut rhetoric like "tenancies shorter than gym memberships", "S21 is the main cause of homelessness" and "no fault evictions" and provide real evidence of the unintended consequences of the government's dabbling with an industry they obviously don't understand. I'm going to make this suggestion to RLA (as I'm a member) but would be delighted if colleagues could encourage their organisations to work on this too.

Reply to the comment left by Appalled Landlord at 15/04/2019 - 17:04
What sort of evidence of wishing to sell might be accepted? I written statement from the LL? A contract to sell with an Estate Agency? Photo of a For Sale sign outside the property? What happens if the property doesn't sell because the market is flooded with everyone else flogging off their dead horses? Will there be a minimum length of time the property needs to be for sale (empty and costing us money) before we can choose to re-let it?

Reply to the comment left by Heather G. at 15/04/2019 - 17:15
Brokenshire did not say. He probably hadn't given it any thought.