Another council wants an extension to the existing ban on bailiff-enforced evictions, which is scheduled to end on February 22.
Yesterday our sister publication Landlord Today reported that the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, joined forces with local councils in that region to demand an extension to the ban for another six months.
Now Labour and Green councillors on Brighton & Hove council on the south coast have agreed to write to Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick to urge an extension.
Local media in the area report that one Labour councillor, Gill Williams, is urging letting agents and landlords to find alternatives to evictions.
She also says the government should remove an exemption allowing landlords to evict tenants with over six months of arrears, and she wants government grants to cover Covid-related debts run up by private rental sector tenants.
“Brighton and Hove Citizens Advice Bureau reports that the ending of private rental sector tenancies is the leading cause of homelessness in this sector and rent arrears have become one of the highest debt issues” says Williams.
“It’s getting more and more serious. Many people are being furloughed or have lost their income altogether due to Covid and the numbers are rising. How are we going to help these people keep their homes when they’ve lost work or income or are working fewer hours due to Covid-19 and have growing debt and rent arrears?”
Conservatives on the council - who abstained on the issue of a letter to Jenrick urging an extension - instead told Labour and Green colleagues to write to the local MPs and urge them to vote for the government’s Renters Reform Bill when it comes to the House of Commons later this year.
Greater Manchester Mayor Burnham says: “The Covid-19 outbreak has proved extremely difficult for many in our city-region and we understand people may be in a worrying financial situation which they may never have experienced before.”
“We already have more than 4,000 households in temporary accommodation and are also supporting 1,000 people through our A Bed Every Night scheme.
“The homelessness system in our city-region cannot take much more, a sudden surge in evictions will create a huge amount of pressure and I urge government to reimpose the eviction ban to protect people who are in these circumstances through no fault of their own.”
Here is the report on other Greater Manchester calls for the extension.
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No surprises here nor the outcome.
Let them give up their salaries then!!!!!!
Or...Make a commitment that all debts can be given back when this is all over........
And that courts and bailiffs make it all happen fast?
Can they do that?
Yep and there still living free and don't gave a f @@k
I am in Brighton and Hove. I have a client who has had no rent for 12 months, the tenant is causing serous disturbance to everyone else in the building and he has been told by the Court in Brighton that they don't know when they will enforce his possession order. How is that fair?!
Exactly it's completely unfair shame he doesn't know a few people because the laws an a#sdon't get me wrong I will help anyone if I can as long as there being fair with me I understand that people can come on hard times as I were a homeless person when I were 16 but never done me any harm joining the army to get out of the sh##tbut that besides the point you get the ones that just want to take the p##s there rent is paid by the DSS I have no problem with that it's when they think they can spend the rent money and then they wonder why they become homeless believe me the last thing I want to do is evict
You should in theory be allowed to still evict as apparently evictions can still happen in those cases where serious anti-social behaviour is happening.
However, proving that and in reality actually evicting anyone seems nigh-on impossible right now. Landlords can still progress an eviction, but in most (nearly all) cases the bailiffs can't enforce it, so a bit of a blunt tool really.
I'd say landlords should get used to the idea - as I'm sure many have - that they won't be able to evict for at least another six months, maybe even longer.
I don't know why the government hasn't already announced the extension, absolutely everyone knows it's coming.
Strange no mention of any support for landlords carrying the tenants
And with the vaccination on track maybe, just maybe, the extension will not be needed as the courts are so far behind it will take months to get cases into court. This could be a winner for the Gov't by being seen to be a Gov't that lifted restrictions that will in time be shown to have no bearing on people being able to go and mix in the pub etc etc.
Don't forget the matter of CGT for those who have got to sell because they have missed out on a year of no rent revenue and then being taxed on the supposed income. Wait and see what will happen later in the year and then at the end of year what tax liability will do to the market. It looks like a perfect storm to me.
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