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Agents Beware - no bailiffs to complete evictions between these dates

The government has revealed the dates of its so-called Christmas eviction truce.

Agents will not be able to instruct bailiffs to complete evictions between December 11 and January 11.

The dates were revealed by housing minister Chris Pincher in the Commons earlier this week, responding to a written question. 

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Pincher wrote: “In addition [to the Christmas dates] guidance will also be issued to bailiffs highlighting that they should not enforce possession orders in places where local public health restrictions have been introduced by government through legislation.” 

This means there can be no evictions staged where there are local lockdowns - and at the moment the list includes parts of Leicester, Bolton, Greater Manchester and the North East, North West, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

Pincher added in his response: “Under the Coronavirus Act 2020, landlords serving notice of their intention to seek possession between August 21 and 29 would have been required to give their tenants at least three months notice.

“Where possession cases do go to court, new court rules mean that landlords are now required to set out any information they are aware of in relation to how their tenant, or any dependant of their tenant, has been affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. Where this information is not provided, judges have the ability to adjourn proceedings until such information is provided.”

In the early spring the Coronavirus Act extended the notice landlords had to issue from two months to three.

The eviction ban’s third and final extension - until last weekend - was accompanied by a new provision requiring agents and landlords to give tenants a six-month notice period, meaning that no tenant would find themselves evicted before March next year.

The exception to this would be for tenants who had not paid rent for more than six months, and “the most egregious cases” cited by the government, such as anti-social behaviour.

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    • 24 September 2020 08:40 AM

    Why the special treatment?
    In my view, if they have not paid what they should and probably they have already spent far too much of my money on blisteringly expensive electronics for kids and everyone else.

    The if they need to leave, the dates don't matter to me......Christmas and Boxing Day are the best dates for me. And even possibly it will give them time to think about what they have done.

    And good riddance to them as well. They are cheating thieves who potentially are going to bankrupt me.

    So why the hell should they then think I am the bad boy????????

    Algarve  Investor

    Evicting someone on Christmas Day?! You sound like Scrooge!

    I think we all know you wouldn't do that. Maybe you need to be visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and the Christmas Yet To Come to give you a more charitable outlook on life.

    In these highly unusual and difficult times, maybe you could choose to have a more charitable viewpoint on the people who pay your mortgage. Unbelievably, not every tenant who can't pay their rent is a feckless layabout who spends too much on presents for their kids.

     
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    @Algarve INvestor
    The point I believe that David is making is the he is NOT a charity. He, like the rest of us, is running a business. Why has the government protected tenants from landlords claiming rent due and not insisted they get free mobiles, Sky TV, electric, gas, water etc?

    If you don't pay your mobile phone bill or Sky subscription, they cut you off, Christmas Day or your birthday, neither matters! The same should apply to rent.

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    • 24 September 2020 12:48 PM

    @algarveinvestor

    What a LL chooses to with the rent is none of the tenants business.

    LL charge for a service.

    Some LL may choose to spend the rent received on wine; women and song and then waste the rest.

    Some LL may choose to use rent to service the costs of a mortgage.

    It is totally irrelevant what LL use rent for.

    Believe me a bank would have no issues repossessing a property with defaulted mortgage payments on Christmas Day.

    These tenants are poncing off the assets of LL.
    This is inexcusable.
    Tenants should expect to be booted out whatever the day.
    All tenants are feckless if they haven't bothered to put resources aside to cover for sudden income loss.
    You can safely bet that most tenants have spent away without bothering to save for sudden income loss.

    That is their fault NOT the LL.

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    I'm with David Crisp on this one. As for the Xmas period I would say make an exception to all church goers that actually celebrate Xmas and those who attend midnight mass. For the majority of rent shirking tenants a Xmas eviction would only make their hangovers worse

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