By Landlords and tenants should be offered a fairer deal, following reforms to landlord eviction rights, according to Housing minister Heather Wheeler.
Writing for the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), Heather Wheeler vowed to ensure that changes to the private rented sector will provide tenants with greater security and strengthen landlords’ rights on repossession.
The RLA have been critical about a recent Government proposal to scrap no-fault evictions, otherwise known as Section 21 notices. These notices allow landlords to evict tenants at the end of a fixed term without reason.
Pressure group Generation Rent, who represents the interests of tenants, welcomed the Government’s proposal to scrap no-fault evictions after a campaign to reform the private rented sector.
Section 8 strengthened
Mrs Wheeler claimed that recent regulatory reforms guaranteed greater security for tenants, but also acknowledged that landlords should have rights for repossession strengthened through Section 8 eviction notices, otherwise known as fault-based possession.
Mrs Wheeler explained: “Ultimately, both landlords and tenants stand to benefit from a more stable and secure legal framework – for investment, letting and renting alike.
“It will mean removing the threat of eviction without explanation under Section 21…but it will also mean assuring landlords that they can get their property back when they need to, without recourse to Section 21, by making other parts of the system better.”
Consultation on the way
A formal consultation was announced, with Mrs Wheeler indicating that: “This process has to involve other parts of government as we consider wider systems changes – it won’t succeed by reforming tenancy law alone.”
She added: “Our recent call for evidence showed that landlords who experience eviction via the courts as unduly slow and complex, are increasingly dependent on Section 21. I look forward to working closely with the RLA and others in the sector over the coming months, as we develop the all-important details with the aim of delivering a private rental market that is fit for the future.”
Fair is a subjective concept. How can any one claim that Landlords are treated fairly when councils are allowed by The Data Commissioner to break data regs, when we are taxed on our turnover, are forbidden to charge fees whilst virtually every airline does this. The list does go on.
Mrs Wheeler’s “vow” is immediately broken by para 1.8 of the Call for Evidence regarding tenancy deposits which says: “The Government also intends to carry over the existing tenant protections included in the Section 21 eviction process (for example for the requirement for landlords to provide evidence that they have protected the tenant’s deposit before an eviction can be granted by the court) into the new tenancy regime.”
In other words it will be made harder for landlords to recover possession under Section 8 than it is at present. New obstacles to s8 claims will be introduced. That is not strengthening section 8 but weakening it.