The Citizens Advice Bureau has accused landlords of evicting families on a whim.
In new research the charity claims that half of people seeking help from Citizens Advice about being evicted from their privately rented property, despite being up to date with their rent, have dependent children.
It said that families face an uncertain future in their homes with some people being evicted because the landlord wants to sell property or because they have challenged their landlord over poor conditions.
Citizens Advice said it helped a woman and her daughter after they asked their landlord for repairs to their privately rented home, as they were getting electric shocks in the shower. An electrician told them it was not safe for them to live in the flat because there was an electric current running through it. When the mother pursued the landlord to fix the problem he evicted them.
The new findings, due to be published on Wednesday, are from Citizens Advice's latest Advice Trends report which tracks growing problems around renting privately and is based on data from July to September this year. The publication finds:
22,000 got help with private rented sector problem, 6% more than in the same period last year.
20% more people got advice about eviction for problems other than arrears compared with the same period last year.
Two in five people receiving advice on a private rented problem have dependent children.
One in five people seeking help from Citizens Advice for a problem with their private rented home is a lone parent
Citizens Advice is concerned that more people will face unfair treatment by landlords as the private rented sector continues to grow. The number of households renting their homes from private landlords has increased to almost five million.
The charity is calling for protection for people renting from private landlords to be improved.
Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: Family homes are vulnerable to the whims of landlords. Parents and children are being uprooted from their homes, through no fault of their own. The knock-on effect means some families struggle to afford the costs of moving. In some cases prices mean people have to leave their local community and lose their support network of nearby family and friends.
People face a huge number of different housing problems. A lack of rights for private renters puts them at risk of sudden eviction, even if they are up to date with the rent. The rules for landlords and letting agents need to change to protect families living in the private rented sector. Putting an end to retaliatory evictions is a good place to start. We hope that MPs support the Tenancies Reform Bill on Friday.
Comments
Yet only 7% of all tenancies are ended by the landlord (RLA quantified figures)
No good LL gets rid of a good tenant for no good reason...CAB only get one side of the story as they refuse to assist LLs, even those holding 1 property, as they are classed as businesses.
If a T is not in arrears and hasn't wrecked the property or grown/sold drugs in it, then it is highly unlikely that they will be evicted, unless the LL requires the house to move back into him/herself.
Ts should look to their own behaviour and attitude before blaming the easy target of the LL who is providing them with 000s worth of property for a small consideration.
The lack of comprehension of the sector, by govt and tenants, needs to be addressed before further unfounded attacks on LLs for the sake of a headline.
But these tenants say they're up to date with their rent - they can't all be lying, surely Whilst I agree with your point that a landlord should have the right to evict if rent is not being paid, or if the property is not being looked after properly, we see regularly on LAT about certain unscrupulous landlords exploiting vulnerable tenants, and I can't believe that hasn't been the case here.
Rogue landlords are, thankfully, still rare, but it would be naive to assume all landlords are angels and it's the lying tenants and do-gooders who are always at fault. We do tend to be a bit defensive and insular in the private rented sector - we have to get the point across that we're not all bad, and that bad landlords are still the exception rather than the rule.
CAB are totally losing the plot - following the lines of the labour party!
Section 21 is the RIGHT for the Landlord to evict a tenant and regain possession of THEIR property. Without Section 21 in it's current format the PRS would shrink because investors would look elsewhere other than property to invest in. What would happen then Mmmm.....I know - the CAB and other do-gooders would complain about the lack of PRS stock available and call for reform AGAIN!
We always use S21 to evict a tenant with rent arrears as it is much more reliable than Section 8. I can promise you that EVERY call from the Council or CAB on behalf of the "poor Tenant" who goes running to them and, incidentally, who is NOT PAYING THEIR RENT is the same. We get one sob story version of the situation from the CAB/Council (put to them by the Tenant(s)) and then put them straight with the truth of the matter. Usually a very short phone-call!
Too many do-gooders in this country at the moment. They want to start thinking about Landlords being deprived of rental income.
LEAVE SECTION 21 ALONE!