Being a private renter in any country is extremely demanding. This is a universally known and accepted fact. Any person who has been on the lookout for a new home to rent has first-hand experience of how arduous the process is. Finding a home that will fit your bill is exhausting. However, once you do find a home that ticks all the boxes, if you are a private renter in the UK, you will not be able to heave a sigh of relief because of the “Section 21 notice” or in lay terms, “no-fault eviction”. An instance in which your landlord can kick you out after the initial fixed term of the tenancy.
The reason why no-fault eviction has gained the spotlight these days is because, as of recently, the country has been subjected to a constant back and forth concerning placing a ban on it. However, despite the clear show of dissatisfaction by tenants towards their landlords and their ability to wield the power of no-fault eviction as they please, Michael Gove’s bill to shield renters from such actions does not look like it will see the light of day. At least not before this year comes to a close. This is mainly because a significant number of MPs are still vetoing the proposal and the parliament is slowly running out of time. The most recent reason why the no-fault eviction ban may never really become a reality is because Michael Gove has communicated to Conservative Members of Parliament that it cannot be put into effect until the court system is reformed.
Ever since the ban was first proposed but held back from being established as a law, according to data released by the government, around 21,332 households have been evicted. This number indicates that in the third quarter of 2023, private landlords had initiated 7,491 legal proceedings to evict their tenants, which is a 35% increase compared to the same period in the previous year. It is disheartening to see the uncertainty surrounding this bill, especially considering how a ban on no-fault evictions was first proposed in April 2019 by Theresa May when she was the prime minister.
What is a no-fault eviction?
In simple terms, this law has haunted renters in the UK for decades. In legal terms, it is when a landlord can legally remove a tenant from a property without having to explain why, as long as they follow certain legal steps. This can affect tenants who have done everything correctly and prefer to be long-term residents of the same place.
Robert Booth, writing for The Guardian, while discussing the thousands of tenants impacted by no-fault evictions, brings to conversation the plight of one amongst them. Chiara Daughtry, 33, a teacher in Walthamstow, London was issued an eviction notice in January. She and her husband, Ben, along with their three-year-old little girl were asked to leave the premises as a result of her raising concerns about a perennial damp problem in their two-bedroom flat and rejected a steep 24% rent increase. Despite paying £1250 per month in rent, they had to deal with issues such as deteriorating wooden sash windows that allowed water to seep in, a waterlogged cellar beneath that was making their flat damp, and water infiltration through air bricks. When Chiara stood her ground by insisting that the landlord fix the issues before asking for more rent, she was issued a Section 21 eviction notice. The situation put her in a predicament and undue stress, highlighting the lack of security that renters often experience in the housing market.
This is why the UK government is considering a new law called the Renters Reform Bill which may have the potential to label landlords’ attempt to use no-fault evictions in the future as downright illegal. If they want to ask the tenants to vacate the place they will have to present a valid reason. This means that they will no longer have the authority to kick out tenants with no specific reason. And it is vital that this bill is brought into action considering the grave situation in the UK. But now, the government has stopped giving it the necessary attention.
To elaborate on the seriousness of the issue and to put things into perspective, once every eight minutes, a family in England is handed a no-fault eviction notice, as revealed by recent research conducted by a housing and homelessness charity named Shelter. The research also illustrates that in the last three years, over 188,000 families who rent homes in the private sector and have children have been served a Section 21 notice. This roughly translates to an average of 172 families receiving the notice daily. The brutality of these cases is in the fact that landlords are not expected to give a specific reason for evicting the tenant. And they do not care to give a reason, not even out of common courtesy. Moreover, families who are on the receiving end of such notices typically have just eight weeks to find a new place to live. Furthermore, Shelter’s research (based on a YouGov survey of 1910 private renters) discovered that almost 277,000 families (around one in five private renting families with children ) have had to shift their places of stay for either three or more times within just the past five years.
Landlords raise concerns, but about what exactly?
As mentioned in BBC, Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, who is also a landlord, is of the opinion that the bill could have “unintended consequences”. He further explained that landlords were already subjected to additional regulations and higher interest rates and that once this too comes into play many of them would opt to sell up. Mainly because they will feel burdened by so much legislation. However, Siobhan Donnachie, spokeswoman for the London Renters Union contradicts this claim by stating how the bill did not have any indication suggesting a ban on “the huge and unfair rent increases [the] members are facing”. This means that while the bill will grant permission to tenants to speak up against unfair rent increases, landlords will still have the ability to increase rent annually in accordance with market prices.
Is banning no-fault evictions the light at the end of the tunnel?
There is a great absence of all rights of the renters being secured. Therefore, even if the bill were to pass, it would not be the be-all, end-all for renters. The tenants will certainly have more power to negotiate a lot of things. However, unless otherwise necessary adjustments are made to the local housing allowances and more construction is done in areas with high demand, rents will continue to increase. It is important to note that, after a considerable number of years spent advocating for change, the bill is a worthy opportunity to reform the dynamic between tenants and landlords. However, if it keeps being tossed around like this, the uncertainty will put both landlords and tenants in an uncomfortable position.
(Sandunlekha Ekanayake)