Martin Lewis, the celebrity consumer rights campaigner behind MoneySavingExpert, has called upon the government to extend the current ban on bailiffs evicting tenants, even if courts have agreed possession orders.
Lewis - who specialises in personal finance campaigns, often backed up by TV shows and media appearances - has taken to Twitter with a message to Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.
Lewis tweets: “ Dear Robert Jenrick, as you know the Eng/Wales ban on baliffs evicting rental tenants is due to end on Monday. I presume you'll be extending this (it'd be madness not to). Please can you put people's mind at rest as soon as possible.”
The tweet bought rapid responses and retweets from the Generation Rent and Shelter campaigns.
Generation Rent qualified its support for Lewis by suggesting he did not go far enough.
The campaign group’s tweet said: “The government must bring back a FULL eviction ban. Yes, they need to stop bailiffs evicting people from their homes but they must also stop the court processing evictions, so renters aren’t under pressure to move as this public health crisis continues.”
The National Residential Landlords Association says it is “extremely likely” there will be an extension to the current ban on bailiffs conducting evictions even after court orders have been made. The current ban runs until January 11.
Yesterday MPs voted with an overwhelming majority to support the new England lockdown, which is expected to last until late February at least. The NRLA says this measure is likely to end with arrears being driven up.
Eviction bans of one kind or another have existed for almost a year now in most of the UK.
The first formal eviction ban started in March and ended in September, only to be reinstated in areas classified as Covid risk Tier 2 or Tier 3 during the autumn. Then on November 5 the government said renters would be protected during the second England-wide restrictions with no bailiff enforcement action, except for the most egregious cases such as anti-social behaviour.
The government also said that an exemption would be introduced for extreme pre-Covid rent arrears cases - those evictions could take place after all, thus meaning bailiffs and High Court Enforcement Officers could move to enforce warrants and complete evictions.
However, this will only apply to cases where the equivalent of nine months’ rent arrears had been built up before March 23 last year, when the UK went into its first national lockdown.
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Oh dear , that's him unfollowed on social media then . What a plonker
I am sure he will be upset, I say that, as I also understand he follows this site almost religiously and gets most of his ideas from the wisdom coming from this forum.
George: if everyone 'unfollows' all those whose views they don't agree with, then everyone will simply live in their own 'echo-chambers' - they will only read/see views that reflect their own. One needs to also follow those whose views we disagree with: to see where's they're coming from. and the reasons for their views. And if then you still disagree, then fine, agree to disagree - without using abusive language as you have done. Present reasoned argument, not just abuse., George.
I’m with you George. Shame I used to like him and previously thought he was a fair minded person.
David, surely you are referring to Shelter & Co. living in an “echo chamber”. They are starting to believe their tune.
I guess it’s nice to be subsidised and therefor lobbying by/for the government and their cronies hedge funds (built-to-rent)who really couldn’t care less about their tenants.
Would that be your wisdom Mark, god help the Country if he is reliant on that, when are all those quangos going to realize its not their Property, not their Property not their Business no input keep your comments get a life suck someone else's blood..
That's the first time that at I can remember that Martin Lewis has talked rubbish. He should put his energies into campaigning for the Government to give loans to tenants who are in rent arrears. How does he think that landlords can pay their mortgages, and service charges and ground rent on managed flats etc? In my case the rent is a supplement to my basic state pension to put food on the table and pay for heating.
Perhaps Martin could lend tenants enough to cover arrears from the millions he made flogging off his business? How many homes does he provide for others - same or more than Shelter?
To the two whiny old farts above , worth-less and Wilson
You’re utterly pathetic and an embarrassment tbh , devoid of anything constructive all you do is criticise. Booooooooring
That did make me chuckle George ;-)
Booooooooring ?.. I think he might have got a bite ?.. nope, he landed you hook, line and sinker !
George
Looks like Seb was feeling left out? Please add him to your list and keep him happy!
Funny how the above don’t provide any homes for anybody but seem to profit off attacking those who do.
That is easy to say for a man who sold his business for £20 million and probably still earns hundreds of thousands a year. The rest of us are trying to earn a living and only resort to eviction for genuine reasons.
It was much more than £20 million and he still earns a fortune.
Just usual landlord bashing.. he has probably worked out that the majority of his supporters are tenants
Blanket bans are like any other blanket measure - they help the people who need it but are open to exploitation by people with no thought but for themselves. I am sure Martin Lewis is thinking of the former.
It would make more sense to continue court proceedings and take all factors into account so that p*** takers are evicted and people in real financial hardship are helped, either to pay or to find more affordable accommodation. Benefit assistance could be targeted and not given to those who are not using it to pay their rent (or needing eviction for other reasons like property damage) so the overall benefit bill does not go up.
Maybe that is too logical an argument!?
Not all clever people are clever all the time. Martin has missed a blatantly obvious trick here!
The house rent is a chain, to pay the mortgage(keep the wanks > sorry banks +financial rogues in the city fat) repairs to the house and for those who have paid up mortgages a supplementary income.
We have got all shades of govt and politicians who are totally u/s as they are quite happy on their £90K p.a. salary plus rip off expenses. So Martin's argument should have extended to show a way for our flipping u/s MPs to the banks into this loop and tell "the unable to pay rent tenants" their debt will be registered with the lender direct and for those who do not have a mortgage, the govt. should fork out at least 50% of rent. The real problem is what do you do when lumbered with 95% crap MPs.
The money saving expert 'Martin' this must be his best money saving idea of all, this one tops the lot, when I are owed many thousands of £'s on some properties, it don't matter about any of that just stay there , live for free, immune from eviction, nothing can happen to you, no bigger money saving idea, his other Blogs pail into insignificant's scratching around to save a few pounds.
P.S. I recall £85million as the price at which Martin Lewis sold his business and he was retained by the buyers to continue at a good deal or so. While I am sympathetic to the genuine public on hard times, the problem has been magnified over the past 20years or so by different govts. giving the rent money to the tenants rather than landlords, the so-called excuse given for this at the time by brainless MPs was to help the poor tenants with managing money and that continues today. We really have some morons both in Parliament and as govt employees. They could have just the Benefits office and given state credit cards to the benefit recepients thereby saving another fortune on the pay of benefit office staff!!
I wonder if I stopped paying my mortgage on my rental would Martin stop the bank/building society from taking my property? I suspect not.
Martin Lewis helps so many people and I respect that and long may he continue to do so. However, in this case, Martin does not seem to have considered the plight of the private landlord. How do we pay the mortgage, which keeps the roof over the tenants’ heads, if they are not paying the rent to us, despite receiving it from Universal Credit? As Martin acknowledged on TV this morning, mortgage holidays are not free and need to be paid back with interest - so why would we put ourselves into further debt because SOME tenants are choosing not to pay the rent, despite receiving it?
One tenant alone owes us £2,500 and it has been confirmed by Universal Credit that they have been paying her for months!!! This tenant told us ‘It is not my problem and there is nothing you can do about it’! Cannot evict her - is that fair Martin Lewis? This is a small example of the experiences many private landlords are facing. We are now finally receiving a payment direct from Universal Credit, but, they cannot pay the arrears! Tenants with arrears need to have an interest free loan from the Government or similar.
Good tenants are worth their weight in gold and where help is needed, we have assisted them wherever we can, helping them contact Universal Credit, form filling and so on. What happens if, worst case scenario, houses are repossessed? Who houses these people then?
I hope you have issued a ''money claim online'' at least then when you do evict her the CCJ will come up every time she applies to rent, apply for a credit card , bank account or loan, you may or may not get your money but revenge is sweet.
I am owed at least £5k + on 3 different properties plus various amounts on others, still I haven't made any application for eviction yet. I try to work with the Tenants and their situation but its not helped by all those sitting on the fence with no input, yet see fit to call all the shots.
For years now we have been taken the brunt of adverse publicity, regulations & lies saying how bad we are and the cause of young people not getting the property ladder. There are now several big Companies taking over whole portfolios to rent or building thousands of flats to Rent as you will have seen on yesterdays blog on here. I read it with disbelief you will all have read it too probably, it said Renting is the best way forward for the future imagine that, they have spent years knocking us back, now when its them, its fine don't worry about first time buyers, what kind of clowns do they take us for, if Renters are renting their tens of thousands of Flats & 7'600 Rent units coming in Wembley Park alone, they will not be buying will they ? so its OK when they are doing the letting that's fine. I suppose their friends in Government will introduce a help to rent Scheme.
Mate, I've got £15k on one property outstanding. We had a PO last February, the Chinese disease came along and everything stopped. We have 13 months "pre Covid" arrears and fall under the egregious arrears category. The Court have successfully dragged their feet since 20th September when they re-opened with every excuse you can think of why the WoP has not been enforced. Finally, on Tuesday this week our case was put before a judge who will issue a judgement next week, after 11th January 2021, what do you think the scumbag MP's in the HoC will decide before then??? This is an almighty stitch up by the scum Gov't.
In Scotland the SNP nasty party have now banned evictions until 31 March, no mention made of the tenant loans they claim are available.
Hi John, sorry to hear that it really too much to stomach, far too high for anyone in Business to absorb especially on one Property, no one has a bottomless purse & we all have to count. Sorry once again and good luck in the future.
If Martin Lewis is such an expert why doesn't he spend his time educating tenants on what their responsibilities are - pay your rent, pay your other bills, keep the property up to scratch, make sure you don't damage anything (e.g. ventilate to prevent mould), read the tenancy agreement and make sure you stick to the rules, etc.. And do all of this before you waste money on the latest gadgets, holidays (when out of covid restrictions!), etc.
Once he's done that he might (just might) have a reason to stick his nose into what is our business, not his. Since when has a 'money saving expert' become an expert in the private rental sector?
It is really important when such notorieties/celebraties make controversial public proclamations, /campaigns /advice to govts; for such do gooders to disclose their own interests in the same field at the outset, so the reader and all affected / interested parties know ALL associated facts.
Come on Mr.M.Lewis open your books on property ownership and let us the public see for themselves. Far too many are good at deciding on issues of others, but never being transparent about their affairs, especially the MPs. Just recall how difficult it was to get their expenses made transparent some 10-15 years ago!!
I've said this before, but where are the NRLA on this, their silence is deafening again. Landlords going to the wall with no one or any association to support them.
This industry has never been in such a poor state and this Govt seems to be able to ruin us with impunity.
We have no voice or representation,.
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