The six-month tenant eviction ban, which finally ended yesterday, has helped renters that are suffering financial difficulty, but it has also left landlords powerless to take action against renters committing domestic abuse or making the lives of fellow tenants or neighbours a misery.
Cases where tenants who are committing anti-social behaviour or domestic violence and situations where rent arrears were building before lockdown and have nothing to do with Covid-19 must be given top priority by the courts and their processes enhanced to avoid further delay once they start to deal with possession cases this week, according to the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA).
There is inevitably a backlog of cases. Between January and March, just before the ban was put in place, there were 24,320 claims made by private and social landlords to repossess property; 8,093 claims led to a repossession order being made and 1,336 led to a warrant being issued for repossession in England and Wales.
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the NRLA, said: “After a six month ban on repossessions it is important that landlords can start to take action to tackle the most serious cases. This includes those where tenants are committing anti-social behaviour or domestic violence and situations where rent arrears were building before lockdown and have nothing to do with Covid-19.
“The framework put in place by the judiciary and the government largely strikes the right balance between the needs of landlords in such situations and those of tenants affected by the pandemic.
“We continue to encourage landlords to work with their tenants to sustain tenancies wherever possible, making use of the guidance we have prepared. To support this the Government should follow the example of Scotland and Wales and develop a stronger financial package to help tenants to pay off rent arrears built since the lockdown started.
“Ministers also need to address the crisis faced by those landlords who have rented their homes out whilst working elsewhere. The six months’ notice required in such circumstances freezes them out of accessing their own homes, effectively making them homeless.”
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Mr Beadle suggests landlords now give notice to quit to those involved in domestic violence. I would have thought a far better course of action for a landlord would be to report them the police. Now. Not wait for the courts to have their say weeks or months down the line. (They're civil courts anyway, not criminal courts.) What was Mr Beadle thinking?
Do you really mean domestic violence which will only really affect the partner or do you mean a violent 'sod' who is damaging the building, who is dangerous and making life hell for the rest of, say, the block of flats? I have had experience of that. He vanished as soon as we made it plain he was going to be evicted and forced to pay some rent. Well done to my letting agent who took him on. They were nice people without the slightest knowledge of nasty people. (sarcastic).
There needs to be a fast track to sort out this problem. The courts with even more nice people are hopeless for that.
Absolutely offer LL the facility to remove rent defaulting tenants 14 days after 1st rent default even if £1.
The Council will step in and make sure the LL is paid it being a lot cheaper for them to do this rather than source expensive TA even if they can source some.
Nice people (do gooders) need to get out more, then they might just notice that there are a lot of very nasty and voilent people out there .
When is England going to do the same as Scotland and wales and offer loans to pay off all Covid rent areas?
1/3 of Middlesbrough is being chased through the courts for the largely insignificant Council Tax... so who would voluntarily compound that by adding several £1,000s more ?
Additionally, who in their right mind would convert a civil offence into a criminal offence ?
Hopefully never, as if they give these people a loan, you just know it will just go to the Bingo Hall, the Pub, Wetherspoons and tobacco...........................................
And then again, no one wins except these scrounging good for nothings.
Not accessing any available loans should be grounds for immediate eviction and classed as making themselves deliberately homeless - so no help from the Council.
If they have not paid then there MUST be some retribution and punishment.
The law is the law.
If they get away with it, then everyone will start to do the same!!!!!!!
For me, non payment of rent also SHOULD be a criminal offence for sure.
Then they’ll move the goalposts.. again
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