With the eviction ban coming to an end (more or less) many tenants will be desperately worried and concerned about their home.
Many have a reduced income through no fault of their own and tenants organisations and others are saying that it is wrong that they should lose their home because of this.
There is also a problem for society if large numbers of hapless tenants are evicted – as no-one wants more homeless people particularly if they are forced to live on the streets.
Tenants organisations are calling for the eviction ban to remain. But is this the right answer to the problem?
Here are five points for discussion. Let me have your comments in the comments section below:
1 Government is effectively expecting landlords to bear the loss
The governments ‘policy’ for dealing with the issue of tenants being unable to afford their rent has largely been to prevent landlords from evicting them.
This means effectively that private citizens (most landlords own just one or two properties) are being expected to house tenants for free for an indefinite period of time.
Is this right?
Many landlords HAVE stepped up to the plate and offered tenants low or even rent free periods. However you cannot expect them to do this forever. A year is a long time.
2 Landlords still have to pay THEIR expenses
Although landlords with mortgages have been able to claim a payment holiday, this is only delaying payment.
Plus mortgages are only one payment landlords have to make. They also have other expenses including insurance, the cost of any repair work needed, gas and electricity safety inspections and the like.
These obligations do not stop just because the landlord is getting no income.
Larger portfolio landlords may be able to absorb the loss but smaller, for example, pensioner landlords who rely on the rent for their own income face huge difficulties if their tenants stop paying.
3 Most landlords would prefer not to evict
Most landlords are almost as reluctant to engage in court proceedings as their tenants are to be evicted. They are only driven to it by economic necessity.
If the only issue is rent arrears, most landlords would far rather allow tenants to stay. So long as they received their rent.
So if grants and loans were provided to tenants, the looming eviction crisis would largely disappear.
4 The Tories always prioritise home-ownership over renting
Tories seem to be obsessed with home ownership.
For the Tories home-owners = conservative voters and ever since the Thatcher era, their main objective has always been to get more and more people owning their own home. Rather than sort out the problems with the rental sector.
Listen carefully to Tory politicians when they speak about the housing crisis – they will almost always talk about (or at least mention) schemes to encourage home-ownership.
But this is a fantasy just now. House prices are far too high to allow most people in ‘ordinary’ jobs to be able to buy their own home.
However, there is nothing wrong with renting. In this country, it tends to be viewed as ‘second best’, even shameful.
The government needs to realise that renting a property is a perfectly valid and reasonable thing to do and give renters some respect. Rather than obsess about how they can turn them into property owners.
I think this may be why the rights of both tenants and landlords have not been supported and respected as they should have been.
It is also why Council housing (which was probably the best solution we ever had for housing people unable to afford their own home) is not encouraged as it should be and is still, shamefully, being sold off.
5 If landlords are not supported we are storing up big housing issues for the future
At the moment most landlords have to put up with things. However, once they have got their property back, they don’t have to carry on being landlords.
But we need landlords.
Most people are not in a position to buy. So we need more, not less rented properties. And we also need new properties, ideally built to zero carbon standards, maybe using new modular building methods.
However if landlords are not supported and their rights respected, builders and investors will not be willing to build the new properties or invest in the private rented sector.
And existing landlords will sell up and exit from the sector.
And finally
I think the government needs to think really carefully about its attitude towards the private rented sector and do more to support the many tenants who find themselves unable to afford their rent through no fault of their own.
Rather than put the whole burden of supporting tenants onto their landlords. Who will then, inevitably, have no alternative but to evict them once they are allowed, causing huge problems for society.
Long term, it must accept that the private rented sector is here to stay, and do more to support the rights of both the landlords and the tenants who live in it.
David Porter says
June 7, 2021 at 11:56 AMGreat article, Tessa, all valid points, well made. It’s just a shame that government, tenant organisations and so-called housing ‘charities’ aren’t listening. Instead they’re obsessed with vilifying private landlords and pursuing their own agendas, which in the long-term will work against the very people they claim to represent.
Bob says
June 7, 2021 at 1:11 PMMaybe. But being a private landlord is often treated like a business when in debate it’s a social service. Arguably, we shouldn’t have them at all. We certainly need more council housing but that is seen as even more shameful. Why? Well, at least partly because it’s often me poor quality and it’s seem as the place you put…certain people, which it is, but not always.
Bob says
June 7, 2021 at 1:12 PM“In debate”? No idea. I blame my phone.
Annette Bright says
June 7, 2021 at 5:01 PMI must admit I get fed up with comments made about being a Landlord, who is not a single property or a housing association, who do not have mortgages should be ok and be softer on Tenants.
I cannot absorb the loss due to covid but not because my Tenants could not pay, but from having a third of my properties empty through the lockdowns. I had to give Tenants six months notice, but the tenants only had to give me one months notice and I could not put in new tenants in because of the restrictions. It was the tenants who left would not be able to pay.
But the housing associations were getting help in other ways but I did not get any help.
I have pointed this position out to both main parties and what it is about to be a Landlord and neither understood and thought it was money for doing nothing. While no politicians understand how it really is they will never get it right. Landlords are a service industry, we supply homes for those who cannot get a council house, or are going through transitions in their life or do not have a good enough credit score, who do not want to buy a property of their own, Without us the country would be in a far worse state than it already is.
Tenants should not be looked down on as renting is often the most sensible thing to do.
Bob says
June 7, 2021 at 8:42 PMBeing a landlord pretty much is money for doing nothing. Provide reasonable accomodation, take money. Sure, you have bills, but your motive is profit and you’re (by and large) making one.
David Porter says
June 8, 2021 at 10:58 AMLandlords are entitled to a earn return on their property investment, and it is nowhere near money for doing nothing – I appreciate it may look that way, though. They won’t be making a profit if they have a non-paying tenant they can’t evict for many months, so they may then choose to invest their money somewhere else, which reduces the housing supply. Which in the long term makes things worse for tenants, not better.
Peter Winkworth says
June 8, 2021 at 5:06 PMAs a letting agent for more than 25 years (in not the most affluent area of South East England) my view is that the PRS is broken.
Landlords are being discouraged from entering the market due to changes in taxation and the introduction of increased legislation. Many existing landlords are selling their properties as we know. The remaining ones are to a large extent doing the job of the local authorities with very little support.
The available stock of property is the lowest in my experience and therefore rents are increasing, often to eye watering levels. Tenants are often being forced to move due to landlords selling and they are faced with very few options at high prices.
Therefore the Government’s desire to provide a more tenant friendly environment is not working. Add to this the desire to make it more difficult for landlords to end tenancies (even for legitimate reasons) and also increasingly difficult for landlords to have a say in whether pets are permitted in their properties …..….Roll on retirement.
Bob says
June 10, 2021 at 10:59 AMA sale doesn’t necessarily force a move.
Steven Rawlings says
June 10, 2021 at 2:09 PMThat’s interesting! As a private tenant myself, I discovered yesterday that my land lord is open to selling as a dwelling & not strictly as a rental property with sitting tenants as he led us to believe. Does this mean that even if a buyer wants us to vacate so they can move in we don’t have to?
Tessa Shepperson says
June 10, 2021 at 2:11 PMA landlord can ONLY get vacant possession legally by:
– the tenant moving out voluntarily, or
– eviction by a bailiff or HCEO acting under the authority of a court order for possession.
So no, you don’t have to move out. Unless your landlord gets a court order for possession first.