End of revenge evictions

The House of Lords late last week approved a Government amendment to the Deregulation Bill which will bring an end to so-called ‘revenge evictions’ by private sector landlords tired of moaning tenants. The new legislation will impose a ban on any landlord from serving a section 21 eviction notice on a tenant for a minimum period of six months if they make a complaint about the state of their property. The legislation has been criticised for imposing rules that can be exploited by bad tenants. But the decision to approve the new regulation targeted at tackling the problem of retaliatory eviction has been slammed by the CLA, which represents landowners, farmers and other rural businesses, for being rushed through Parliament. CLA President Henry Robinson (left) said, “We support action to prevent retaliatory evictions but this law will not stop bad landlords evicting tenants. It is much more likely to give tenants that are damaging the property or not paying their rent scope to delay eviction. As a result it will cause significant uncertainty for thousands of responsible landlords throughout rural communities. “This is the definition of bad policy making. It imposes a poorly designed, burdensome new regulation as part of…

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