2^nd Aug 2019

According to a trade body, if Section 21 is scrapped landlords will have to drastically change their method of regaining possession of their properties. This could mean that those people most affected will be vulnerable tenants who have the highest risk of falling into rental arrears.

The trade body held a survey of letting agents and landlords which found that 84% of those who took part said that if Section 21 goes, then they will have to be far more selective in choosing new tenants.

The trade body says that landlords would undoubtedly choose tenants in employment rather than those on housing benefits who could fall behind with their rent.

It also believes that landlords would not be as considerate in taking on tenants with pets as they could damage their properties, and because of the repossession timescale becoming even longer than the current Section 21 process.

A spokesperson for the body, said: “Whilst no landlords should ever abuse the system, it is only right and fair that they can repossess properties swiftly and with certainty in legitimate circumstances.

“At present, only Section 21 provides this certainty.

“If the Government is to get rid of it, landlords should have the same level of confidence and certainty about repossessing properties in cases such as rent arrears, anti-social behaviour or wanting to sell the property.

He continued: “Without such confidence landlords will simply leave the market, making it more difficult for the growing number of people looking for a home to rent.

“Secure tenancies will mean nothing without the homes to rent being there in the first place."

One Leeds landlord told the survey: “If Section 21 were to go I would only rent to professionals because I don’t want to be left in a situation where a tenant is in my property who cannot afford to pay the rent.”

The trade body's research shows that the majority of Section 21 notices are not used for 'no-reason' evictions, which refutes the argument of those wanting to abolish it.

84% of landlord that had successfully used Section 21 notices to regain their properties had to because of rental arrears, 56% due to property damage and 51% because of anti-social behaviour.

The spokesman surprisingly said: “Rather than landlords seeking to evict tenants by this route, 26% said that they had served a Section 21 notice at the tenants request to enable them to seek social housing to avoid them being classed as intentionally homeless.”

The survey also found that many of those who took part were extremely unhappy with the length of time courts took for them to regain their properties, because of the many delays and problems that come with having to dealing with tenants' evictions for anti-social behaviour, property damage and most commonly rental arrears.

Currently it takes an average of more than five months for a landlord to regain their property from the initial court application.



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