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Government accused of ‘sneaking out’ rules for evictions after ban is lifted
The government has been accused of “sneaking out” new legislation outlining how landlords can evict tenants after the current ban is lifted, with campaign groups warning that most renters will not be protected from losing their homes.
On Friday evening, the government published an amendment to its rules on evictions during the coronavirus crisis, detailing how possessions will resume after the government lifts the moratorium on 23 August.
Campaign group Generation Rent has criticised the plans, claiming that they will not give judges enough power to protect renters and prevent mass evictions.
Alicia Kennedy, director of Generation Rent, said: “The government snuck out its plans to resume evictions on Friday evening with no explanation or accompanying guidance on what this means for renters.
“As it stands, these rules will not help the vast majority of renters who are at risk of losing their homes, and judges will not have the powers to prevent Section 21 no-fault evictions or Section 8 evictions for rent arrears built up during the pandemic.”
Pressure has built on the government to put in place protections for renters to avoid a wave of evictions when the ban is lifted next month.
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Politicians including London mayor Sadiq Khan and housing charities Shelter and Crisis have called for the scrapping of so-called ‘no-fault’ evictions, and for judges to be given more discretion over whether to evict someone using Ground 8 of Section 8 of the Housing Act.
Section 8 evictions are currently mandatory, meaning that tenants can be automatically evicted if they build up more than eight weeks’ worth of arrears.
Alongside the amendment, which will remain in place until 28 March 2021, the government published an explanatory memorandum on Friday, explaining in more detail what the changes mean.
The measures will put a requirement on landlords to inform the courts in writing that they wish to reactivate stayed eviction cases, and to provide a full history of rent arrears in advance of, rather than at, the hearing. This will include details about vulnerability, disability, social security position and if a tenant has had to shield for a period of time.
The claimant must also include in any reactivation notice details of the defendant’s circumstances, including how the pandemic has affected their ability to pay rent.
Courts will have more flexibility over when cases are heard, in a bid to spread them out and to ensure there is capacity for all cases to be heard.
To do this, the standard eight-week period between the issue of a claim form and the hearing will be suspended, with courts now allowed to fix the date of hearings to avoid ‘bunching’ of cases.
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick introduced the eviction ban in March at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and put an outright ban on landlords starting or continuing with possession proceedings.
At the time he said that the government wanted to be clear that no renter who has lost income as a result of the pandemic would be forced out of their home.
This evictions ban was extended to August last month.
Nevertheless, it has been estimated that hundreds of thousands of renters could still be at risk of losing their homes when the ban is lifted.
Earlier this month, research by Shelter found that 225,000 private renters are at risk of being evicted as a result of rent arrears, with 442,000 in rent arrears of some form.
Ms Kennedy said that these renters urgently need reassurance that they would not lose their home as a result of the pandemic and that safeguards need to be put in place before parliament goes into recess.
She said: “The government must use the final days of parliament to legislate to ensure that no home is at risk.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “The government has taken unprecedented action to support renters during the pandemic.
“We have put in place a support package to help prevent people getting into financial hardship or rent arrears, including help for businesses to pay staff salaries. We have also ensured that no one has been forced from their home this summer as a result of the pandemic.
“We’re working to provide appropriate support to those who have been particularly affected by coronavirus when proceedings start again. We want to ensure landlords are providing more relevant information relating to their tenants’ situation in light of the pandemic.”
