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Another landlord confronted at home by anti-eviction activists

Anti-eviction campaigners have confronted two landlords over an alleged planned eviction. 

Members of the Living Rent tenants union are pictured by the media outside the home of the married landlords at Balloch, Scotland, as part of a so-called Day of Action in defence of tenants allegedly facing eviction before Christmas.

The unnamed landlords, and letting agency Martin & Co, are reported to be preparing to evict the family on November 30 from a property in Bathgate, West Lothian.

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One activist from the campaign group is quoted as saying: “The landlord and letting agency are threatening our member’s family with a disruptive Christmas, so today we’re celebrating Christmas early and disrupting their business until they agree to our demands.”

The tenant is named as Lorraine Robinson-Moseley, who has a son with severe autism, hyperacusis and sensory processing issues.

She is quoted as saying: “With my son’s conditions, it has taken us so long to find a suitable home and feel accepted. All we are asking for is a delay to the eviction to ensure my son’s new home will be ready for him. This is his future we are talking about here. Eviction will cause him extreme emotional distress. This eviction needs to be overturned.”

There has been no independent verification of the apparent eviction threat; Landlord Today has asked Martin & Co for its comment.

 

The Scottish protesters have followed the path of another rental union, Acorn, which last month protested outside the London home of a landlord who owns an investment property in Bristol.

The landlord was allegedly seeking to evict two tenants from the Bristol property; the tenants - according to Acorn - received their eviction notice after complaining about damp in the property. You can see our report on that story here.

Want to comment on this story? If so...if any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals on any basis, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.

  • David Lester

    No Landlord would ever evict a good Tenant!

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    That has and always been my opinion on these stories too. So you go around your own property unannounced and it’s trouble for you. They try to wreck a law abiding business that’s fine carry on.

     
    Madeleine  Astor

    Well yes you would think that and that is what I always thought but after living in a 2 bed flat for over 7 years and work needed to be done like bathroom floor replacing etc. I then got a section 21! Always paid rent etc. And had to put up with very noisy neighbours and cockroaches and neighbours drug dealing!! But my landlord no doubt is going to do the flat up as the only one in the 4 that’s not been done and he can get a lot more a month like £200-£250 probably so understand as I am on HB and pay just over £100 top up but it doesn’t help me as not many landlords will accept HB as this stupid universal credit gets paid to the tenant and they don’t pay the rent to the landlords so it should go back to go direct but not all renters are the same and to be honest a couple of people I know have lost jobs Justin’s this pandemic so HB paid direct is guaranteed money really !!

     
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    This case, if it accurately described, is is a perfect case for mediation. Did the landlord and tenant sit down to try to agree a solution?
    The one-sided title 'Landlord Confrionted ......." could easily have been turned into "Tenant with son with special needs being evicted by unreasonable landlord". All depends which side you take.

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    It is outrageous that, not only are landlords now expected to provide rent free accommodation and not utilise the limited rights to which they still have recourse, they can now be accosted in their own homes by mobs who can get their home address from the council.

     
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    If 'accurately described' being the appropriate question here?
    The slanted misrepresentation by the media is bordering on 'criminal'. From my experience (vast), there a far more cheating, lying Tenants then there are cheating, lying Landlords. There may well be mitigation for mediation in this case, but there may well not be, and it is unlikely the whole truth is being reported.
    If Tenants were as fair minded and decent as the majority Landlords, I guarantee you there would be far less evictions taking place. The sooner these militant Tenant support groups adopt more balance to their argument, the sooner they will achieve their goals.

     
  • James B

    I’d these unemployed morons put as much effort in finding a job as they do doing this stupid stuff they wouldn’t be tenants

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    Fact-checker please, John. Just wondering what is the evidence for your statement "If Tenants were as fair minded and decent as the majority Landlords'? Has anyone ever done independent research on which group is fairer and more decent? I personally wouldn't make such a suggestion unless I knew it to be true . (Personal experience or anecdotal experience is not enough to publicly make such a statement.) It may be true, but it needs to be fact-checked.

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    I would consider my own personal experience being over 35 years, handling over 100.000 Tenancies good enough to make this statement. I'm sure most others would too.

     
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    Yes, but you're a landlord. To verify your statement you'd need to look at what what tenants are experiencing re: their landlords, in their organisations, social media, etc. etc. - is there an organisation called 'Tenant Today'? One landlord's experience, however extensive, is not a basis for that sweeping statement. An independent opinion organisation needs to be brought in to investigate whether such a claim is right., across large numbers of landlords and tenants. Otherwise everyone is just shouting from inside their 'landlords' or 'tenants' bubble. Fact-checking is so important these days.

     
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    Actually David, I am an Agent who has run my own business for over 3 decades. Over this time I have gained vast experience, dealing with both Landlords and Tenants. Rogue Landlords have, in the main, been brought to heel and fortunately are now few and far between. Landlord's are being wrongly targeted and this is wholly disproportionate to the decent, compliant, and yes kind/caring, private Landlords who operate in the sector. We are now in a situation where the anarchists and unruly are dictating policy and that, in my view, is based solely on idealism, jealousy and self entitlement.
    You can create whatever 'think tank statistics' and bubble facts you wish from any algorithm or researching graduate report. It almost certainly comes with a left wing agenda.
    Again, this is just my view, but it is precisely this methodology you suggest that will make the housing problem in this country a major crisis.
    There is a reason that the older generation mellow from idealistic to realistic in time....it's called experience. Something in today's mad world which is highly underrated.

     
  • girish mehta

    Media stunt, seems a simple management issues. But true facts not reported lots of true facts missed out in order to get media attention.

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    The main fact that I would like to know here is the Lady up to date with her rent payments ??

     
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    I believe this story could also be written as "Council failing to complete alterations required for family with disabled child causing family to become homeless". Depends who you want to slag off doesn't it? Eviction is not possible at present with significant rent arrears but "Tenant doesn't pay rent" isn't an emotive enough story is it?

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    Girish,True facts not reported is truest word you ever said like Deposit Schemes based on total untruths, you will all probably have seen last week TDS say far less than 1% goes to Dispute Resolutions so someone is making a killing, some of the big ones charge £26.00 to protect one Deposit in the Insurance Schemes, they are hardly at risk. The Schemes were brought in by an un-elected lobby group who alleged up to 44% were withheld by LL's, what an untruth and no come back on them why are they not held to account, now we have all this extra cost & hassle imposed on us and causing an administration nightmare as has been said on here trying to get it back. Just scrap the stupid Schemes like you did HIP's.

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    Excellent example of the ridiculous over regulation in the PRS.

     
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    Absolutely no details of WHY they are being evicted in the first place, as usual with these stories. I get very suspicious if I hear only one side of the story.

  • Madeleine  Astor

    There is nothing that says they are in rent arrears but then again lots of people are losing jobs at the moment so maybe it’s that and the landlords won’t accept HB ? I understand if people don’t pay their rent they should be evicted but there are times that people do get evicted and they haven’t done anything and that is what a section 21 is for but at the end of the day the landlord owns the property so if they want to sell it or refurbish it and do serious repairs like my landlord is obviously doing and can make a lot more money after they will but after being a paying tenant for over 7 years to be told you have to move out in 3 months during this Covid 19 is upsetting and unfair especially when they want to send round an inspector to check out what needs doing to repair the damp mould in my bedroom but just would fob me off and say things like I can’t expect much being on HB and having a dog! Yes there are bad tenants and I have had to put up with all sorts as neighbours but there are also bad landlords although I thought I had a good relationship with my landlord and eventually would repair odd things so don’t class him as bad but maybe unfair how it all panned out being forced to have an energy bloke come round during the pandemic the day before eviction and some renters guide sent the day before eviction ! There are good and bad in all walks of life !! Also the local council will probably only help these people once they are kicked out on the street !!

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    In Scotland, since December 2017 it has been almost impossible to evict tenants other than for major issues, so I suspect there's an awful lot more to this case than reported, since it appears that a legal eviction date is looming.

     
    Daniela Provvedi

    @Madeleine Astor, I'm really sorry you are being evicted after 7 years of being a good tenant, I really am. And to make it worse, I acknowledge that it's come at a terrible time.
    But please don't say your LL is evicting you for no reason. To use your own words, your landlord needs to carry out "serious repairs" to his property, that's the reason why you need to leave. Anyway, why would you want to carry on living in a property that requires serious repairs?
    Whether he's going to rent it out for more money later on, is respectfully not your concern.
    I wish you all the best in finding another property quickly. Good tenants like you shouldn't have a problem.

     
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