The House of Lords has passed a law banning so-called ‘revenge evictions’.
Passed as part of the Deregulation Bill, the new law will prohibit landlords from evicting tenants who complain about conditions in their homes.
According to housing charity Shelter, more than 200,000 renters face revenge evictions every year.
Prime Minister David Cameron mentioned in a speech about affordable housing two weeks ago that his government are putting an end to revenge evictions.
“What’s more, we are outlawing ‘retaliatory evictions’, so tenants don’t face the prospect of losing their home simply for asking that repairs be made,” he said.
Now the Deregulation Bill has been passed the next step is for it to receive formal Royal Assent at the end of March, just before Parliament dissolves for the General Election.
It will then need a ‘commencement order’ to bring it into force – it’s thought this will happen in October.
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Comments
Any tenant damage can surely be assessed as such by any self-respecting builder and no landlord will accept a tenants word for damage until proven. Where decay and lack of attention result, the landlord is at fault. E.G. We are being evicted in a revenge eviction and my young child will have to be uprooted to another area and school, with friends/support5 lost because the selfish git won't fix the house. There are no council houses available. Private rentals are impossible. This law would have saved us but it will not come into effect in time. I wanted to do so much work on the interior, even though it was not my responsibility, but I could not afford it. The environmental health team condemned the house, the landlord had a hissy fit and so we were given our eviction notice to avoid the landlord paying for considerable renovations. We took it in desperation five years ago, not knowing about the landlord's attitude and having no survey done as tenants.
He wants to sell it to 'get it off his hands'. Fair enough with his property but we are people who have been treated unjustly. Since no national register of ALL landlords exists - ours is a private let through the paper and the only place we could find when my ex left us - what can one do? Rather than fear the bill, landlords should band together to make sure it never needs to be invoked. People's lives and health are at stake. I am going to have to stay on past the eviction date if we cannot find anywhere. How does that help anyone? Where is justice for both tenant AND landlord?
This bill will never be a problem for a decent landlord. If bad tenants are an issue for landlords, it is only fair that further legislation prevents them from taking the Michael so go for that. Then it is balanced if landlord's feel it is a problem. As a tenant I support fairness on both sides.
Unfortunately what you will find is that this will become a tool in the arsenal of bad tenants as delinquent rent and failure to upkeep property will not be considered against an application citing fault on the landlord's part, regardless ofthe real source ofthe damage or vandalism. If you have dealt with difficult evictions and professional bad tenants you will recognise the danger here.
@ Bronwen
To prevent the only reason the LL is evicting the tenants under mandatory powers is because he is not discharging his own statutory repairing obligations under s11 L&T 1985.
In reality this is a non event for the industry as far as agents are concerned, because no self respecting agent would be dealing with the type of landlord whose attitude is going to result in the EHO being contacted and improvement notices being issued, thus preventing use of a s21 notice.
Any Landlord or agent who find themselves barred from using a s21 notice under these provisions will almost certainly be getting what they asked for.
Respectable landlords and tenants letting decent properties and discharging their statutory repairing obligations really have nothing to fear other than tenants trying t use condensation as an excuse to try and delay a s21 notice.
Surely the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 already protects tenants from eviction where they are pursuing their legal rights? Cannot see why further legislation is necessary