No-fault evictions hit an eight-year high as Labor accelerates rent reforms

Landlords are rushing to vacate their homes after Labor announced plans to introduce rent reforms without a full review of Britain’s delayed courts.

The number of Section 21 notices, also known as no-fault evictions, hit an eight-year high in the three months to September after it emerged landlords would have to wait 55 weeks to evict problem tenants from next summer.

An estimated 8,425 households in England have been served with eviction notices, almost a quarter more than in the same period last year, according to figures from the Ministry of Justice.

Under Labor’s Tenants’ Rights Bill, Landlords must request a hearing before they can evict a tenant.

However, waiting times for judicial eviction notices are as long as 55 weeks, according to data collected by the country’s largest estate agents, Savills, Hamptons and Knight Frank.

The previous Conservative government had promised not to implement the deportation ban until a long-standing backlog in the courts was cleared.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the changes would “give tenants more time to repay arrears and continue living in their homes, while landlords are not faced with unsustainable costs”.

But experts warned the move would lead to a… wave of landlords leaving the market, reducing the housing stock and driving up prices for tenants.

They also said there was a risk the courts would be “overwhelmed” and landlords would have no means to evict problem tenants.

Paul Shamplina, founder of the Landlord Action campaign group, said: “Landlords are leaving in droves and fear of the Renters’ Rights Bill and the end of Section 21 and serious court delays are pushing landlords to sue the land before they losing it.

“It is believed that the bill and the implementation of periodic tanneries will take place before summer.

“We at Landlord Action have filed more Section claims in the past year than ever before.”

Homelessness charity Shelter warned that while the bill had the potential to transform the private rental sector, unfair evictions would continue unless action was taken to limit huge rent increases.

The number of new landlords hiring agents across the country fell by 16 per cent in the three months to July, but in some areas the fall was much steeper.

In East Anglia, instructions fell by 59 per cent in the same period, and in the East Midlands by 37 per cent – ​​more than double the fall recorded for this part of England a year ago.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which represents the sector, said “yet more legislation” and the prospect of an increasingly “unfair” tax regime have led to reduced the appeal of a buy-to-let investor.

Ben Beadle, chief executive of property body the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “With data from Rightmove pointing to record numbers of rental properties for sale, the best way to help tenants is to encourage responsible landlords to stay in the market.”

Abolishing no-fault evictions was a key pillar of Labour’s position on tenants at the election, with the party promising to “take steps to end no-fault evictions with immediate effect”.

The bill, announced in the King’s Speech, is currently going through Parliament and is expected to reach the House of Lords before the winter recess on December 17.

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