The government’s decision to extend the ban on evictions in England and Wales by a further two months has left victims of domestic violence and anti-social behaviour vulnerable to further suffering, according to the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA).
The extension will run from 25 June, the end of the three-month period originally announced as part of emergency coronavirus legislation in March.
But while the extension is likely to help renters that are suffering financial difficulty, it leaves landlords powerless to take action against tenants committing domestic abuse or making the lives of fellow tenants or neighbours a misery.
The NRLA argues that the ban goes against the spirit of a report by the then Victims Commissioner, Baroness Newlove, who warned last year that “victims of anti-social behaviour are being let down by police, local councils and housing providers”.
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the NRLA, said: “Extending the evictions ban is not without victims. It leaves landlords powerless to tackle the kind of behaviour that causes untold suffering and hardship for many communities and tenants alike.”
Research last year by the University of Bristol found that 38% of victims of domestic abuse live in private rented housing, a higher proportion than any other tenure. The charity Refuge, which runs the Domestic Violence Helpline, has said that there has been a 66% increase in calls to the helpline during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In cases of domestic violence, landlords will often end the tenancy agreement and offer a fresh one, for the same property, to the victim independent of the abuser, and that is why the NRLA is now calling for the courts to deal urgently and swiftly with cases concerning anti-social behaviour and domestic violence when they are allowed to begin to hear repossession cases.
Beadle added: “These cases must be given top priority by the courts and their processes enhanced to avoid further delay once they start to deal with possession cases.”
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Government and pressure groups continue to suffer from tunnel vision when it comes to evictions, thinking that they are carried out almost exclusively for financial reasons by greedy and unreasonable landlords whose only consideration is money.
Why do we evict tenants? the main reason is unpaid rent.
Exactly. A tenant of mine has not paid and has no intention of paying. I am powerless.
Not totally powerless Nial, you cannot evict, but you can money claim online, £60 last time I done it, if they don't pay they get a CCJ , might just wake them up to reality, if not though you will have the satisfaction in knowing that next time they look to rent a property most landlords will not touch them.
I wonder who the 5% are in the above survey?
i am in the 5%--tenants and a faux-tory mob in hoc are ttp
This NRLA is all things to man kind! On this site the position clearer. I tend to agree, send the money.
Another victim is a prospective tenant.
I have a vacant property available right now but I would sooner keep it that way than rent it to a stranger who can then stay rent free for 7 or 8 months ( because lead times will be insane at the court) and then leave. So sorry matey, you're not staying in my house.
I would rather an empty property than a property with a rouge tenant in, so will be very selective now when looking for new tenants, no benefit claimants, no single mums, no one under 25 and a good guarantor where possible, leave rouge tenants to councils to home, their problem, not mine.
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