The Renters’ Reform Bill: Reforming Evictions

Over the weekend, the UK government pledged to hold approximately £60 million GBP in a bid to help tenants who owe money to their landlords. The director, Alicia Kennedy from Generation Rent (a group of power activists) highlights that over 200,000 tenants in England are one step from falling into homelessness. The new funding on the horizon the government has pledged will therefore also give hope to landlords, who may become more at risk of falling into debt themselves due to rent arrears. Other property organisations also have their own merciful comments, for example, Shelter and its CEO (Polly Neate) quotes: “the funding from the government, and other forms of funding that are inventive, will be crucial to offer both tenants, and as a result, landlords, a deep lifeline”. Her heart stands by the fact that the eviction ban should also be implanted. The idea of eviction banning was first written about in the Renters’ Reform Bill in 2019, which under section 21, hands over lifetime deposits for tenants, and halts landlords from evicting them to subtract mental pitfalls when tenants move from property to property. The bill, sneak peaked in the Queen’s speech, will be better emphasised when a white paper will be read to the public in the autumn of 2022. There are also talks of the landlord database becoming wholly visible to the entire population to chop landlord criminal rates (with an additional 15% of 6,000 tenants surveyed on Spareroom believing this will help), while 13% believe that an open database will regulate measures such as fair pricing for tenants who may have pets.

The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) policy representative (Chris Norris), however, smiles at the thought, as he believes that £60+ million will not suffice when mirrored against the rent debt of £300 million in the country - it is because of rent debts that our Britain may economically recline at an alarming rate, and thus, more needs to be done such as the introduction of eviction bans. The landlords will still be able to possess their property if, and only if, they have dug up pounds of evidence, under section 8. Valid reasons for kicking a tenant out now are much more relaxed, however as of the bill’s official launch, will include anti-social behavior from the tenants, or if the landlord would rather move a different civilian inside the property. The UK government defends its stance by stating that the new ban on evictions may help landlords and tenants be less traumatised by the processing of late rental payments and their consequences.