1st
Sep 2014
A new survey , has finally put to bed the frenzied press attack on all landlords saying that they supposedly will evict tenants at the drop of a hat.
The survey shows that landlords will only evict tenants on significant grounds.
There has been major press coverage regarding "retaliation evictions" that has been fueled by Homeless charities and Campaigning groups stating that landlords will evict tenants over repair and maintenance requests. Outlandish figures have been bandied about which are unsubstantiated and skewed for front page coverage.
However the latest piece of research of over fifteen hundred landlords proves to the contrary. Most landlords are far more reticent about evicting tenants than the public is led to believe.
56% of those landlords polled stated that they had to evict tenants, however the reasons given had sufficient grounds as 90% of them had to because of rent arrears. 40%, because of vandalism to the property and 20% due to drug related issues.
30% did admit to evicting tenants to repossess the property, however the majority of these did so because of personal reasons.
The survey concludes : ‘We have been very concerned about claims that retaliatory eviction is a widespread practice, when there is very little hard evidence to back up those claims. As our survey underlines, the vast majority of evictions are down to rent arrears or anti-social behaviour. Landlords are being threatened with more regulation which would simply make it harder for them to evict bad tenants when they need to.’
There are major concerns as to whether the Government will get rid of Section 21 notices, which of course gives landlords the opportunity to "retrieve" their properties at the end of a short hold tenancy.
‘If landlords see Section 21 under threat they will withdraw from the sector. Landlords are frightened that they cannot evict tenants who are in rent arrears or who are guilty of anti-social behaviour easily and cheaply. We still have complaints that even under Section 21 there are costs and delays involved in obtaining possession.’
PIMS Comment -
-
There has always been a misconception about Tenant Eviction - The decision to end a tenancy is often the last resort and a consequence of prior conduct of the Tenant. It is not something a Landlord wants to do and is often the last option after
negotiating options have failed
- We do not feel the Landlords right to use a section 21 will be abolished however there is a serious risk that minimum tenure before a landlord can date a Section 21 will be increased from 6 months to 12 months. Anything greater than 12 months means landlords will be acting contrary to their mortgage conditions; many buy to let mortgages stipulate the maximum length of a tenancy agreement should not exceed 12 months. So increasing the minimum term beyond 12 months undermines lending and may stifle the housing market; which the government and banks do not want to risk.
PIMS Related Content
Where the Tenant fails or refuses to leave there are only two forms of Eviction Notice to end the Tenancy. If you fail to serve a valid Notice any
application made for possession will be
denied
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