Citizens Advice has responded to the government’s announcement that it will consult on scrapping section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions in the private rented sector. Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Scrapping no-fault evictions is a ground-breaking shake-up of the private rented sector and will better protect the almost five million households who live in it.
“It means renters — including families — will be able to put down stable roots where they live and prevent landlords from evicting tenants for simply complaining.”
Citizens Advice helped nearly 200,000 people with housing problems last year , with almost 60,000 of those in the private-rented sector. Their research found more than two in five tenants say fear of eviction prevents them talking to their landlord about disrepair.
Tenants who made a formal complaint to either their local authority or to a redress scheme had a 46% chance of being issued with a section 21 eviction notice in the following six months, Citizens Advice research from March 2018 found.
They found revenge evictions have affected 141,000 tenants since laws attempting to ban revenge evictions were introduced in 2015. Nearly half of tenants (44%) who experienced delays in getting repairs done by their landlord said fear of eviction would stop them from continuing to negotiate about the disrepair.
There are 1.7 million families with dependent children renting privately, according to the English Housing Survey.