12th
Jan 2024
An insurance firm has countered Citizens Advice claim that landlords evict tenants using Section 21 rather than carry out repairs in their properties.
The charity’s Kirsty Rowlinson told Southampton’ local media: “We see quite a lot of seemingly retaliatory evictions. A tenant will ask for repairs to be carried out and they will see soon after the landlords just issued a section 21.
“The legal process as I understand it for getting a tenant evicted is far quicker than the legal process for getting repairs done, so the landlord knows that the tenant is going to be gone before the court case for the repairs comes through. This is what we are seeing at Citizens Advice in Southampton.”
Not content with this claim Rowlinson then went on to say; “Sanctions, section 21s and rent arrears have risen hugely in Southampton over the last couple of quarters. The last couple of months in particular we are really feeling the increase. Landlords want to raise the rent and tenants aren’t able to afford the increase.”
The firm’s MD Sim Sekhon hits back at the charity’s claims as being laughable that a landlord would prefer to undergo the high cost, disruption and worries of the eviction process without any valid rationalisation.
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Sekhon says: “I don’t know a single landlord who wouldn’t rather carry out repairs. Doing the work necessary to keep a good tenant happy and protect the value of their investment makes sense and is far preferable to battling through a lengthy court process.”
Sekhon says it is exasperating that honest and responsible PRS landlords are expected to take these type of slurs and actions on the chin whilst bad tenants take full advantage of working the system,
He claims that there have been a number of instances where tenants use delaying tactics or claim ‘breathing space’ protection to stall the court process.
Sekhon also says there is often no lawful defence and slowly the court process grinds to an eventual conclusion, however the landlord has to deal with significant rental arrears remaining unpaid and of course stress.
He says: “Landlords are already at the end of their tether. Many are using Section 21 as a way of leaving a sector that neither supports nor respects them. It is their legal right to do so, and to insult them with these generalised, unbalanced slurs is simply unfair.”
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