Some of these policies could have major implications on your clients, be they buyers, landlords or your tenants, so it’s worth making sure you input to government policy where possible or are ready to inform and protect your client base of possible changes to come.
Retaliatory eviction (a live one)
Just a few weeks ago, MPs looked like they were due to back a bill read for the second time by Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather on Friday 28th November 2014.
The Tenancies (Reform) Bill had cross party support and was intended to stop allowing landlords evicting tenants, just because they asked for essential repairs or for poor conditions to be rectified.
However, the Bill wasn’t passed to the next stage as it was ‘talked out’ of parliament by two Tory MPs who went over the time allowed for discussion and to vote on the Bill – albeit that only 60 MPs (less than 10%) turned up to vote.
So should this Bill have been passed and if not why?
What the supporters say
To the supporters of the Bill, there should be no issue. A tenant can’t ‘randomly’ decide to report a fault to the landlord post an eviction notice. The law as it is laid down only protects tenants if:-
-the repair problem was reported prior to an eviction notice being sent
-an environmental officer has confirmed the work requested does need doing
-from their perspective, this protects the landlord as the tenant can’t respond to an eviction notice by putting in a compliant – it has to be done beforehand.
-if a tenant causes the damage themselves, Bill supporters believe that the local housing officers will be able to spot this and therefore protect the landlord.
What those say against the Bill
Clearly the best person to ask is the man who carries out the evictions and the top chap in the UK is Paul Shamplina who owns and runs Landlord Action.
Paul explains: “Whilst I fully agree that tenants need to be protected from the small minority of rogue landlords, there wasn’t enough evidence to support the need for more legislation…which would have impacted a large number of good, reliable landlords.” Housing charity Shelter says about 213,000 people were subjected to such “revenge evictions” in 2013, which is around 2% of renters, but Paul’s evidence is very different and he describes Shelter’s figures as “guesswork”, saying “In the 24 years I have been dealing with problem tenants, I have only ever heard of the words “retaliation/revenge eviction” in the last 18 months.
The fear of those that oppose this Bill is it will create a “loophole” for tenants to stay in the property without paying any rent and although an independent person from the Local Authority is supposed to be involved, the huge problems already caused in the Courts through government cuts make this idea seem implausible.
And it appears that their fears may be founded based on recent landlord experiences.
Tom Entwistle, a director of landlord website LandlordZONE® says: “Since all this began we’ve had several landlords enquiring to us about how to deal with this problem. Typical is a landlord who contacted us because his long standing tenant had complained to the council 6 weeks ago that his boiler was not working.”
Fair enough, if this was the case. But then the tenant refuses to let the plumber in who was called off the back of the complaint, preventing the fix.
According to Tom, “Both the landlord and the local authority are at a dead-end as to how to remedy this” and if this is happening before the ruling has been bought in, the problem will just get worse as it appears the Bill amendments haven’t fully addressed the issue of ‘bad tenants’ smart enough to have this level of ‘forethought and ‘planning.
Where are we now?
RLA chairman Alan Ward has reported that there is a need from more research into retaliatory eviction and how much it really exists. Landlord Action’s research suggests it isn’t as prevalent as Shelter suggest and Alan says “Retaliatory evictions are wrong and the RLA condemns any landlord who engages in such practices.
But the RLA agrees that Parliament needs clear, independent evidence on the scale of the problem before it can decide how best to take the matter forward. The Minister has admitted the government does not have the data.”
If the changes do come in, it is also suggested that as soon as the landlord has made good the repairs or faults in the property, they can claim repossession immediately rather than have to wait for six months. If the landlord was true to their word and the tenant ‘trying it on’ then this amendment should surely result in everyone’s support for the bill.
For further information visit www.designsonproperty.co.uk
