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Shelter claims 200,000 children in private rental sector at risk of eviction

Shelter claims that 200,000 children living in privately rented homes are at risk of being evicted this winter – equivalent to one in every 50 children in England.  

A study for the campaigning charity claims that 104,000 private renting families had received an eviction notice in the last month or are currently behind on their rent – and the charity says that is “putting them in real danger of losing their home.” 

In response Shelter is calling on the public to support its frontline advisers who are working seven days a week to help as many families as possible to find, or keep hold of, a safe home.     

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From the same polling, Shelter estimates that 55,000 children and their families have already been evicted or removed from their homes in the last three months. 

The fear of becoming homeless is looming large over family life, Shelter says, with seven in 10 private renting families saying they would struggle to find another home this winter if they lost theirs, and one in 10 parents apparently saying their children worry about becoming homeless.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, says: “No child should have to worry about losing their home this Christmas, let alone 200,000. But so many families will spend every day with the threat of eviction looming over them, not knowing if they will still have a home next year.

“Eviction notices have started dropping on doormats and our services are working round the clock to help families who have nowhere else to go. Like it has before - the government needs to intervene to keep people safe in their homes. We urgently need more support for renters to protect them from eviction this winter.”

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  •  G romit

    Funny how #Shelter never have a bad word to say about the Social Rented Sector?

  •  G romit

    How many of these children are have irresponsible parents? Who rather spend their money on fags & booze than pay their rent, or that abuse their neighbours, or are damaging the property?
    The truth is Landlord do not evict good tenant (unless they are selling up). But Shelter defend tenants no matter what they have done.

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    Various private sector organisations and high profile PRS individuals (NRLA / Paul Shampalina / Kate Faulkner etc) have over the years tried to engage with Shelter in a positive 'lets go forward' type of way, only for Shelter to continue to spew out this sort of vile sensationalist rubbish.
    The one who beat the school bully, is not the one who tried to be all sychophantic, but the one who broke its nose.
    It really is about time that the PS and its representatives fought fire with fire and exposed Shelter for exactly what it is.
    Ironic that an organisation calling itself 'Shelter' doesnt actually provide any, just berates and bullys those that do!
    People can start by looking at their annual accounts and see how much the 'top honchos' cream off before they DON'T actually spend a penny on providing any 'Shelter'

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    Anyone know what organisations/businesses/retail etc that contribute to Shelter because I honestly believe they are not aware of the damage to homeless people this fake charity business (that houses no one) does. You can equate additional homelessness to Shelter by their self serving actions

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    Someone should produce a template with relevant info which we should all send to CEO's of donating companies but bit would also need to come from decent tenants too to have any chance of success.

     
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    M&S (£13million); Nationwide; B&Q for starters.

     
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    Tricia Urquhart - Insightful! Thanks.
    M&S’s £13 million less taxes would more than suffice for Shelter/it’s partners to provide housing for these 200,000 children and their families over the winter (plus another 200,000 people).
    Shelter can build a whole town with schools with £13m, or perhaps buy an island off mainland U.K. to house these allegedly about to be homeless people.

    Shelter seem to either intending to go into renting sector themselves by marketing these scandalous untruthful headlines against PRS LL’s or perhaps Diane Abbott/or Labour look after Shelter’s finances!
    Or may be there is a potential embezzlement going on within Shelter, and it’s regulatory auditors.
    Perhaps PRS sector LL’s need to change themselves into a ‘Not for Profit’ operators/LTD/LLC/LLP/Self Employed etc. to start offsetting All rental operations expenses as charity rules allow it, and marketing as ‘Shelter accommodation’ to make Shelter go out of business.

    Only an irresponsible parent would make a child stress about the housing situation. Parents had the kids=their job to provide housing, food, clothing, education, and social, respect & self reliance responsibility skills learning to their children-it’s not the Landlords/or anyone else’s role-it’s the parents role & Govts (regardless of whichever political party is in power) needs to be clear about it.
    Best wishes to all good PRS LL’s, and their good tenants.
    Merry Christmas 🎄 to All!

     
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    Where did that figure come from ?? plucked out of thin air of course. there will be those who's parent/s don't pay the rent, and there will be landlords selling up, but who's fault is that Shelter ? but 200,000 ? must think we all fell off that Christmas tree

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    I like the use of Campaigning charity. Says it all. All mouth and no action. No one offered real help to get them off the streets. The money that runs this masked charity could be of real help to those who need help. Shelter the charity (business) that houses no one.

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    104000 Landlords guilt tripped into responsibility for someone else's children.

    There, fixed your headline for you.

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    Polly, could you start to help by donating £100k of your salary you would still have £36k to live on. Shelter are in the wrong business they should be in the Office of National Statistics just quoting figures. Why not use that £60m tax free pot or such other massive figure, why haven’t we LL’s got Charity Status we actually supply the housing, not sitting on the fence blaming everyone else.

  • Theodor Cable

    Like sure.......That ain't gonna happen!!!!!!! Never..!!!

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    I don't understand the big deal about getting an eviction notice. Sure, it's an inconvenience, but can't you just find another property to rent? It doesn't mean you're going to be homeless, unless you're looking for free accommodation.

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    When you are evicted for not paying your rent no private LL will touch you & the Council don't need to (intentionally homeless) hence you are homeless!

     
  • George Dawes

    Poor wee tiny Tim , down to his last dozen packet of cigarettes and his sky tv subscription about to run out , will nobody think about them at this time of year ?

    About time the snowflake generation started taking responsibility and not thinking they get everything handed to them on a plate

    bah , humbug !

  • Theodor Cable

    Nice one George....
    About time we all start and tell it as it is. And enforce it.
    And just say no to the Govt. and Councils.

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    As is the case with governments, Shelter appear to pluck figures out of the air that suit their given "hobby horse" of the moment.
    What a shame that Polly Neate does not consider WHY there are evictions regardless of the figures involved and also the counter part of the argument.
    Indeed, as is the case for some 50% to 60% of cases where tenants have been served with eviction notices due to non payment of rent, with the remainder attributable to amongst other things vandalism and the like which can have severe financial implications for the Landlord. What about the children of the Landlords who are not receiving rent monies for their property or who have to fund major works etc, those same Landlords may have mortgages on such properties etc that still need to be paid regardless, I would suggest that possibly the numbers will be not be too far removed from whatever the figure is for the numbers of " children living in fear of eviction".
    The cause of the problem is not those who have need to issue eviction notices but more associated with the Tenants/parents themselves who;
    1. Do not make any effort to pay rent
    2. Do not make the Landlords when there are problems with incomes or monies
    3. Pocket the Housing benefit monies as though it is theirs to keep.
    4. Fail to act in a reasonable manner whether towards neighbours or others.
    5. Drug usage and/or taking which impinges on others.
    I have experienced all of these in one form or another in my 27 years as a Landlord of a number of properties and I suggest there are many Landlords with similar experiences.
    Once again Shelter demonstrate that, whilst they have never been interested in liaising with or entering into a dialogue with Landlords - not the associations but Landlords themselves - in order to gain "the other side of the story", but are far more interested in presenting a totally false and biased take on the facts, undoubtedly in a bid to try to justify their funding from Government.

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    I agree, more focus should be on why they are getting the eviction notice in the first place. What is the root cause?

     
  • Matthew Payne

    I never understand where they get their data from. If they wanted anyone to take their claims seriously, ergo they might then attract support for the cause/people they are supposedly fighting for, they need to publish these "studies". I am sure most of us would be alarmed if presented with evidence that 200,000 children could be made homeless this winter, and something might actually be done to mitigate the outcome.

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    You can get all the data you need on Shelter from their annual report. Some of this information is eye watering unless I have read it wrong:
    Staff costs 2020
    Total number of employees for 2020 = 1274

    Wages and salaries £37,686,000
    Social security costs £3,490,000
    Pension costs £2,875,000
    Other staff-related costs £2,938,000
    Total £46,989,000

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    Interesting info Damian, with averaged "wages and salaries" of £29k per employee - and bearing in mind Polly N is reportedly receiving over £130k, there will be quite a few who are riding on a very good gravy train. So they will continue to perpetuate whatever mantra will ensure their longevity regardless of how baseless the details presented may be - they have obviously learned from our successive Governments.

    As is the case with the mantra spewed from Shelter themselves the Government and its advisers need to comprehend the facts from the Landlords perspective.

    Sadly, the Landlord Associations who claim to "have the ear" of the Government and others have clearly - for so many years - failed to present the facts as they actually are for the majority of Landlords.

     
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    With the weight of this against us what chance have we got.

  • Bill Wood


    “104,000 private renting families had received an eviction notice in the last month or are currently behind on their rent”

    Taking this statistic literally, it is possible that 104,000 families are behind in their rent, and that none have received an eviction notice.

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    I was perplexed to see this and it’s terrible that so many children should be in fear of eviction. I house over 1000 tenants and I have a “No eviction policy” which means if the tenant cannot pay their rent we do not evict we help them sort out their financial problems. In 30 years I have never come across a genuine case of a tenant who was unable to pay their rent it has always been wilful refusal to pay rent or worse refused to claim universal credit. This means I am regularly in court evicting tenants and I am usually the only private landlord there. The court lists are full of tenants being evicted but by social and council landlords. I appreciate that many private landlords use section 21 so will not appear on the court lists but I cannot believe that all private landlords only evict using section 21’s. (Incidentally may be a good thing if section 21 was abolished as it will show the real reason why most private landlords evict tenants it is because of rent arrears).

    I have therefore written to Polly Neate at Shelter asking her why all the blame for evictions are put at the feet of private landlords. I have also written asking her what is the cause of tenants being evicted. I am not expecting a reply but if I do I will let you all know
    Jim Haliburton
    The HMODaddy

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    Excellent PR LL need support like this.

     
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    jim, on facebook there is mention of a dispatches article which is monstering private landlords and someone has posted a disparaging article about yourself and your busines.
    SHelter, how much is the Government paying it ?

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    Thank you I’ll look into it

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    Jim, why are you suggesting it wouldn’t be a good thing to get rid of Section 21, the very foundation of the letting Business and very unlikely you would ever have be a LL without it, as you only joined 30 years ago following the 1988 Act which included S.21, before that if you took in a Tenant they immediately became a sitting Tenant, hence the need to let to Companies to give yourself so degree of protection at that time. I am perplexed so amazed that you are saying you don’t know how many are evicted under Section 21, and suggesting they don’t need to go to Court. Surely you should know better than that, only the Court or the Tenant can end the Tenancy. The Landlord cannot only by getting a Court Order which means he has to go to Court, unless the Tenant vacate voluntarily which is the same for everyone in any case.
    Best wishes.

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    Hi Michael. I can only talk from my own experience of housing over 11,000 tenants in the 30 years I have been a landlord and yes I have used section 21 to evict (The reason being for rent arrears). I only evict for rent arrears. I have never had to use antisocial behaviour grounds as all my antisocial tenants do not believe they have to pay their rent. I only evict for rent arrears. I want my tenants to stay, never leave, pay and behave. If I wish to sell any of my properties I sell the property with tenants. I have never encountered a problem in selling a property with tenants.

    I am not saying that to evict for rent arrears is perfect, however, I have a evicted over 350 tenants with 100% success so in my view the system for evicting tenants for rent arrears works but is in need of considerable improvement. I have found evicting for rent arrears simple once you know how and even written the only manual for landlords on how to evict tenants entitled ‘DIY Eviction’ which shares all my experience in evicting tenants over the years and explains how a landlord can get a possession order in only eight weeks from the tenant defaulting and without having to wait for eight weeks rent arrears to build up.

    I can only give my own personal view which is I would not miss the abolition of section 21. If my understanding is correct that most private landlords use section 21 when evicting for rent arrears all that will happen if section 21 is abolished is the same number of tenants will be evicted but the reason will be made known - rent arrears. Perhaps this will be a good thing as the scale of rent dodging will be exposed and landlords will not be blamed for unfairly evicting tenants.

    I think Michael you misunderstand me regards going to court using section 21. Yes you must use the court process to evict using section 21 but there is no court appearance so the eviction will not appear on the court list. Social landlords cannot use section 21 they have to evict for fault, therefore, there has to be a hearing.

    I have started to let commercial property where once a lease is granted it gives the commercial tenant with very few exceptions unlimited right of occupation. There is no section 21, no fault of eviction process for a commercial tenant. I have never heard of commercial landlords complaining about the lack of no-fault eviction. This is something that only residential landlords get upset about.

    I often feel out of step with a lot of the thinking that goes on in property and one of them is why would a professional residential landlord want to evict a paying tenant?

    To conclude Michael I am not saying I would vote for the abolition of section 21 but I do not think it is going to cause me a problem or many landlords for that matter. With all the requirements that now apply to using section 21 I am surprised many landlords are able to use section 21. Michael I think all you have to fear is fear itself.

    Jim Haliburton
    The HMO Daddy

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    Don’t Agree there are others reasons but granted rent arrears is a good one. The overcrowding is another one but the rent is paid in this case. The subletting is another one when you go there and don’t recognise any of the Occupants as your Tenants. The Drinking with over flowing wheeley
    Bins with beer cans and spirits bottles. The wrecking of the house. The over parking driving neighbours up the wall. The Complaints from Council & Police. ASB is over simplifying the issues. I didn’t sell it and I want it back because its my Property now that’s a good reason. Do the words Freehold Private Property not mean anything anymore or is that what is been proposed here. I let it only on a temporary bases never meant to be a hi-jack or confiscation. Jim, you are renting property piece meal in rooms no wonder you are a regular at Court and if you are to sell the property vacant you have to take each individual to Court separately, what a nightmare no wonder you want to sell with they in it. I speak from my own experience too having been a LL since 1978 that’s a good 43 years and so sorry for ever been a LL because of all this recent crap what on earth for just to be everyone else’s dogs body.

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    What do you mean not a Court Appearance, what was I, doing there with my Solicotor and the opposition not taken lightly with so much at stake, it wasn’t just a written procedure and a non appearance if they didn’t show up. Please call off the
    hounds we have enough opposition without getting attached from inside,
    Kind regards.

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    As mentioned above I wrote to shelter and surprise I got a fairly swift response from shelter who ducked the point about only private landlords evicting tenants saying, " the pressure that private renters are under due to private renting being more expensive and insecure ". No reference was made to my point that court lists being full of social landlords evicting tenants and hardly any private landlords appear on the Applications for possession hearings.

    I would also take issue with a point that private renting is expensive. I mainly house tenants in HMOs and the social landlords in my area receive three times as much in housing benefit ( now universal credit ) to house benefit tenants than I receive as they claim enhanced housing benefit for benefit tenants.

    It appears that shelter either do not understand what's going on or choose to ignore the reality.

    Jim Haliburton
    The HMO Daddy

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    I think we can safely say that they choose to ignore

     
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