Bill to ban Section 21 evictions ‘to be introduced this week’

The Government is set to take its first step towards banning Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions this week.

The Renters’ Rights Bill is expected to be published in Parliament, the Guardian has reported. But crucially there is no indication that the Government will accompany the move with any action to deal with court delays.

Courts choked

Landlord leaders are concerned that evictions of problem tenants under the alternative to Section 21, Section 8, will take months as the courts are choked with cases.

Without reforms to ensure the courts process cases much more swiftly, they risk becoming overwhelmed.”

Ben Beadle, CEO at the NRLA (main picture), said: “The end of Section 21 will leave the courts needing to process possession claims where landlords have a legitimate reason.

“Without reforms to ensure the courts process cases much more swiftly, they risk becoming overwhelmed, which will not serve the interests of tenants or landlords seeking justice.”

The previous Conservative government accepted the need to ease the pressure on courts forced to deal with thousands of cases, and delayed the Renters (Reform) Bill, but it was lost when the General Election was called.

Determined

Now, the Labour government says it is determined to pick up the issue and scrap Section 21 as soon as possible.

At the time of the King’s Speech in July, the Government said: “The Renters’ Rights Bill delivers our manifesto commitment to transform the experience of private renting, including by ending Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions – we will take action where the previous Government has failed.”

Other measures in the Bill are to include:

– Empowering tenants to challenge rent increases designed to force them out ‘by the back door’;

– Stopping agents and landlords encouraging bidding wars;

– Giving renters the right to request a pet but enabling landlords to request tenants take out pet damage insurance;

– Applying a ‘decent homes standard’ to the PRS;

– Applying Awaab’s law to the sector – i.e. punishing agents or landlords who don’t fix damp and mould problems quickly;

– Creating a digital national database of landlords and their properties.