14th
Feb 2016
Data published by the MoJ (Ministry of Justice) states that in the last year the number of evictions was the highest ever with 42,728 taking place.
Although the total number of possession claims in the year had fallen to 148,043, it was bad news that the number of accelerated possession cases rose to 37,663 in 2015, this saw an increase of 4.5% from the previous year and up 10.5% on 2013.
Paul Shamplina, the founder of a specialist eviction service, says that the increase in evictions and higher usage of the Section 21 accelerated possession procedures, shows just how severe the housing crisis is in the UK.
“Rising rents and welfare cuts are undoubtedly to blame for the growing number of evictions. With a shortage of affordable properties, particularly in the capital, the imbalance of supply and demand has pushed rental inflation well beyond the levels at which tenants’ wages have risen,” Shampolina said.
“We’re seeing more subletting scams and cases of tenants renting out properties on holiday websites in order to cover their rent than ever before.”
The MoJ also reports the percentage of claims using accelerated procedures has rocket to 25% in 2015, in 1999 it was just 7%.
Shamplina believes that: “Rising house prices, uncertainty over future buy-to-let tax implications and concerns over increased legislation such as Right To Rent and the Deregulation Act have been the catalysts for many self-managing landlords to consider selling up. They use Section 21 as a way to gain possession of their property as quickly as possible.”
Landlords are increasingly opting to serve Section 21 notices rather than Section 8s
As with most cases the majority of landlords feel that they will not be paid outstanding rent arrears from the culprits and gives them the right to use the fast track eviction procedure. Many councils are telling tenants who owe the landlord money or cause damage, to stay in their ‘homes’ until a possession order has been given by the courts. By doing this it will be in their favour as they have not made themselves homeless and will therefore be re-housed.
Shamplina concludes: “A section 21 usually enables landlords to gain possession much quicker on a no-fault basis, so they can re-let the property, which is often more financially viable than chasing arrears. I believe use of the Section 21 process for landlords will continue to grow year-on-year because of councils’ pushing the problem back onto private rental sector landlords.”
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