Labour risks swamping the courts if Section 21 is scrapped now, Propertymark warns
The trade body says that unless the Labour Government ensures there is more capacity in the courts, then abolishing Section 21 'no fault' evictions could have catastrophic consequences.
If the new Labour Government goes ahead and abolishes Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions without bolstering the courts, the justice system will be overwhelmed, Propertymark warns.
New Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook have all said Labour will get rid of S21 as soon as possible.
Nail in the coffin
But now Propertymark has told the Government it will have catastrophic consequences for the already over-loaded courts, causing long delays in cases.
And with the “raft of regulatory and financial pressures placed on landlords in recent years”, this could be “a further nail in the coffin”, the trade body says.
Push rents up
Section 21’s abolition will provide another reason for current landlords to leave the sector, prevent prospective investors from entering and create a further shortage of homes for tenants which will push rents up even further, it warns.
The Conservative government also wanted to ban Section 21, but it was lost when the Renters (Reform) Bill never became law.
Section 21 notices allow ‘accelerated’ claims to skip the court system. The bill would have extended the grounds for possession under Section 8 instead, meaning many more cases have to go through the courts.
Swamp the courts
Propertymark has advised the UK Government to ensure that, as with the Renters’ (Reform) Bill, the latest legislation must ensure that there is a balance between protecting tenants’ rights and guaranteeing that landlords have a suitable legal route to repossess properties without swamping the courts.
Nathan Emerson, CEO at Propertymark, says: “The Renters’ (Reform) Bill brought a great deal of uncertainty to landlords, letting agents, and tenants, so it is vital that the UK Government’s fresh legislation to remove Section 21 guarantees that it is being replaced with a suitable legal mechanism that prevents a backlog of cases to the courts.”
S21 notices may be “no fault” but there is *always* a reason for their use. No landlord wants to lose a good tenant who pays up, looks after the property and accepts the need for rent rises. S21 is quicker and simpler than S8 and means tenant misbehaviour doesn’t need to be publicised in the courts, to the tenant’s future detriment;: for example, if the issue is non-payment of rent, who’s going to rent to someone who’s been evicted in court via a Section 8 and this is now on their credit record and a public record?
And in HMOs, when housemates have poisonous relationships and are even fighting each other and damaging the house, it’s the landlord who has to step in and solve the problem. If negotiations fail and no-one is willing to move out, the S21 cuts the Gordian Knot. Abolishing S21 means the landlord will be forced at her cost to use the courts to sort out tenants’ personal problems, with a high likelihood of failure if rent is still being paid and there’s no external “anti-social behaviour”.
Labour and catastrophic in the same sentence; who’d have thought it from a cabinet where most of them have barely ever had a job.