Propertymark CEO slams Shelter over its ‘relentless’ campaign to end Section 21
Nathan Emerson is unusually blunt in his criticism of Shelter's claims, which he comprehensively pulls apart as 'not representative' of PRS reality.
Trade association Propertymark has made an unusually strong criticism of claims made this week by Shelter that the private rented sector is ‘broken’.
The group released its interpretation of government evictions data to claim that a tenant has been served a Section 21 eviction notice every seven minutes over the past three years, arguing that this form of eviction makes tenants feel insecure.
This is despite official data also showing that Section 21 evictions have been, overall, in decline.
Earlier this week the National Residential Landlords Association accused Shelter of using the government data to ‘scaremonger’ ahead of the expected Renters’ Reform Bill, details of which are expected to revealed next month.
Relentless
“Shelter’s relentless campaign is not representative of the private rented sector,” says Propertymark CEO Nathan Emerson (main picture).
“They state that 2% of private renters were aware they had received a section 21 in the last three years meaning that 98% had not. Research shows that most tenancies are in reality ended by the tenant.
“When a landlord is faced with mounting arrears, anti-social behaviour, refusal to give access or property damage the current grounds for possession are ineffective and in a situation of last resort a section 21 is often the quickest and most effective way to resolve the situation.
“Furthermore, a landlord facing £20,000 of arrears would still be due to pay court fees to seek possession if they do not use a section 21.
“A tenancy is a contract between two parties and the contract must serve to protect both tenants and landlords, but seeking to erode fair rights of the property owner will do nothing to support tenants.”
There’s an important distinction between Landlords and Shelter, that actually weakens Shelters position such that they should not be taken seriously ( and why on earth Govt listen to them is beyond belief )
Landlords will openly criticise any bad practice by a minority of Landlords, whenever it occurs, whereas Tenant campaign groups will not accept there is such a thing as a Bad tenant.
Until Shelter can match landlords integrity, all so-called tenant support groups are a mouthpiece for Rogue Tenants, as they also do not represent the majority of Tenants. !
Finally feels like landlords are being considered when government along with charities like Shelter have been racing to usher in new biased laws on their unreal findings that only 2 percent being aware of receiving section 21 notice which is unbelievable.
Section 21 grants the landlord the right to decide if they wish to reclaim their property other than being in arrears if anything should change may a longer fixed term contract should be considered with a minimum of a year or so to rid of Sec 21 completely will have a negative impact on sector.
This will encourage the rise of rents and type of renters will become more selective.
I am with Nathan & Propertymark over this – Polly Neate needs to get out of her privilidged ivory tower and actually understand that landlords are not some pantomime folk devil and realise that tenants and landlords are inextricably melded together, and what is ‘good’ for one partner is good for the other.
It is so easy, and lazy to say as Shelter does like a broken record, tenants are being exploited, the better use of resources would be to understand that ‘people’ who can not afford a property asset to live in – have to rent – and those properties are often supplied by those in the PRS, and these landlords are financing the opportunity for tenants to live somewhere.
To encourage further generations of landlords – legislation needs to support all of the stakeholders. Otherwise there will be even less accommodation for tenants, which will mean even higher rents. As Nathan so rightly puts it ‘a tenancy is a contract between two parties and the contract must serve to protect both’.
I totally agree and posted this on LinkedIn two days ago. It’s outrageous how Shelter misrepresents the sector to achieve their obsession
Pressure mounts to end section 21 – It will be a big mistake for good tenants
The Government, under pressure from Shelter and other pressure groups, want to end section 21 ‘no fault evictions’ the stories in the press don’t give a balanced view of the issue and are biased towards tenants.
The reality is that most section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions are chosen by landlords where they have tenants in arrears, or are genuinely really bad tenants. They choose section 21 because it’s a bit quicker and simpler, it gives them their property back without having to go though a long rancorous process and without the need to register a debt against a tenant who hasn’t got any money anyway.
Without section 21 tenants who are evicted with arrears will always end up with a debt registered against them and their credit rating ruined. Plus, with a debt registered against them it’s more likely a landlord will employ a debt recovery company to pursue the debt.
Bad tenants will also be given a platform to make their neighbours and their landlords lives even more of a misery. Overall, the removal of section 21 will prejudice good tenants by reducing the amount of property available, causing them more credit issues and harming their life chances