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Current eviction ban is “more balanced” says housing solicitor

The current extension to the eviction ban in England and Wales is “more balanced” than some past examples according to a leading housing lawyer.

Earlier this month the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick announced he was was extending a ban on bailiff evictions "for all but the most egregious cases" until at least  February 21 - a six week extension. 

While many landlords and representatives, including the National Residential Landlords Association, expressed dismay at the move, housing solicitor George Cohen, from law firm Irwin Mitchell, is quoted in the Law Gazette as saying at least some landlords may welcome the change.

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Cohen says: "In the previous regulations, the substantial rent arrears exemption only applied where there were nine months’ arrears on or before 23 March 2020, which is extremely limited (if there were nine months' arrears before 23 March 2020, they would now be at 18 months). Many landlords are suffering severe hardship by rent arrears levels significantly below that figure, and six months appears to be a more balanced threshold."

In the article he adds: "Whether or not bailiffs will actually carry out evictions during lockdown is another matter. We have heard instances of bailiff officers implementing their own policies not to carry out evictions in a period of lockdown. There is also the question of how a bailiff deals with a situation where they attend a property for an eviction, and the tenant claims to be self-isolating. Presumably, the eviction could not be carried out. However, it is hoped that bailiffs will proceed with evictions in accordance with the regulations if they can do so safely."

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    Bailiffs could wear ppe and rent dodgers self isolate in the gutter!

    Btw. I wonder the proportion of self isolation from public sector employees compared to hard workers.
    Possibly similar to back pain and stress in normal times?

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    Maybe Robert could keep his comments to the objective facts as reported in the article?

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    Not wrong though is he David W ?

     
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    David

    It's all part of the same problem with public sector and government employees and officials divorced from the reality faced by those paying their way.

     
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    More balanced! A ton weight on our side a feather on the tenants.

  • George Dawes

    David worthless giving his usual un-helpful advice

    Yawn 🥱

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    He's good for a laugh though George.

     
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    Hilarious Andrew to say the least. Hope I have spelt it correctly :-)

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    Don't worry about the spelling Adrian, I 'm the product of a sh*t secondary modern education of the 60s, even the spell checks struggles with some of my words, poor spelling and grammar has never held me back in the real world.

     
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    Gosh you were lucky I don't even know what a Secondary Modern Education is, maybe just as well when I see people spending an extra 10 years in further education and some call mature students, I ask you and turn out like the Members of Parliament in charge of us making a complete mess. I wonder how we survived in such a big pool without the education or the tax payer throwing tens of thousands of pounds at us for years to conditions our minds to think like them , no hope of thinking for themselves then. It really take them a long time to qualify stupid.

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