Renters allegedly pay £669 in un-recoverable costs for each ‘unwanted’ move as a result of eviction, claims campaigning charity Shelter.

It says in total these ‘unwanted’ private rental moves in England cost £550m per year: this is based on a survey of 2,002 people last month.

Shelter extrapolates that sample to claim that there were an estimated 830,000 unwanted moves in the last 12 months with 40% of renters alleging that their last home move was forced and not made through choice.   

The charity goes on to say that 245,000 renters had to move in the past year because their fixed term tenancy came to an end and a further 61,000 were priced out by a rent increase. Nearly 190,000 were served with a legal eviction notice, while 135,000 were informally asked to leave by their landlord. 

In parallel the charity is complaining about apparent lack of Parliamentary progress on the Renters Reform Bill, which awaits its Third Reading in the House of Commons. The charity claims it’s on the verge of being “watered down into insignificance.”

The charity says renters will continue to pay a heavy price while the insecurity hardwired into the renting system goes unchallenged. Although its research shows that the average un-recoverable cost of such a move is £669, it also claims that many other costs take the sum higher.

These include:

– Paying rent on two properties at once (Shelter claims this costs £800); 

– Paying bills at two properties (on average £245);

– Loss of earnings to view properties (£200);

– Loss of earnings while moving house (£200);  

– Removal van hire (on average £200); 

– Cleaning costs (on average £100); 

– Replacing furniture (on average £400);

– One-off fees including Wi-Fi installation (on average £50). 

When these are factored in, the average upfront cost of each unwanted move was calculated to soar to – £1,245 – or more than £1 billion in total. 

Shelter chief executive Polly Neate says: “Tenants are coughing up millions in unwanted and unwarranted moves, while the government runs scared of a minority of its own MPs. Instead of striking dodgy deals with backbenchers to strangle the Renters Reform Bill, Ministers should defend renters’ best hope of a stable home.  

“With protections from eviction so weak and rents so high, we constantly hear from people forced out of their homes and communities at huge personal cost. It’s impossible for renters to put down roots knowing a no-fault eviction could plunge them back into chaos at any moment. 

“With the Bill’s third reading imminent, it’s now or never for the government to make good on its promise to deliver a watertight Bill. It must resist spurious attempts to sneak fixed-term tenancies back in, and to indefinitely delay the ban on no-fault evictions. England’s 11 million tenants will remember all too well who fought for them when they finally head to the ballot box.”  

The research does not include any reference to landlord costs.