To try to put an end to the scourge of evictions without cause, reform must be examined in the British Parliament. It could require landlords to provide a valid reason for terminating a lease.
Near the stove of her cottage in the south of England, Jackie Bennett remembers the “shock” produced by a letter: an eviction notice giving her two months to leave, in the middle of the holiday season, without any reason. A perfectly legal British feature, which could soon be removed.
“I had to restrict my activity” and cancel “my Christmas vacation plans” to look for new accommodation, explains, with a tight throat, this 55-year-old artist, who struggles to pack her boxes due to chronic fatigue diagnosed in She.
Hanging on the walls or spread out on the floor, the colorful tapestries that she has crocheted make you almost forget the faulty radiator and the humidity that permeates her small home in Lewes.
His owner explained to him that she wanted to sell her property. And it is very easy and quick for her to go through this “no fault eviction” procedure, which allows her to break the lease at any time without any justification.
The winter break does not exist in England. As a tenant, “we feel constantly vulnerable,” laments the fifty-year-old, between two insistent calls from the agency to organize buyer visits.
“Retaliatory measure”
“No reason” evictions were introduced in 1988 by Margaret Thatcher's government, which deregulated the rental market in order to attract more private landlords, but also reduced the number of available social housing units by moving them into private ownership. .
While it is difficult to estimate the total number of households affected, between July and September alone, 8,425 British households were taken to court for staying beyond the date notified by these unjustified eviction notices, at the highest level in eight years, says Ben Twomey, the managing director of Generation Rent, which defends the rights of tenants, relying on figures from the Ministry of Justice.
But this practice could be abolished by a reform (the “Renters' Rights Bill”), the initiative of which belongs to the conservatives and examined since September by the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament, now with a Labor majority.
-The text, which could be voted on by next summer, requires owners to provide a valid reason to terminate a lease, such as recovering their property to move in or sell it, unpaid rent or bad behavior by the tenant.
The ban on evictions without cause would ensure that “the landlord can no longer respond to a reasonable complaint from a tenant”, such as the condition of the accommodation, “by using eviction as a retaliatory measure”, underlines Ben Twomey , from Generation Rent.
But in the absence of a strict cap on rents, “tenants can always be evicted 'through the back door' by the landlord if he raises the rent to an unaffordable level.”
This even though rents have already jumped by 9% over one year in the United Kingdom.
“Shameless extortion attempt”
Anticipating a change in legislation, a growing number of owners have recently resorted to this type of eviction, “worried about encountering difficulties in regaining possession of their property” and lengthening delays in legal proceedings, estimates Paul Shamplina, the founder of Landlord Action, which provides assistance in this type of process.
This is the situation facing Alexandra Casson, who received an eviction notice from her apartment in the extremely expensive London neighborhood of Dalston, which she will have to leave by January after refusing a raise of its rent by more than 50%.
Some owners “consider their real estate assets as a simple spreadsheet” and “forget that human beings live in their properties”, protests this 43-year-old Londoner, who works in television production. She denounces in her case an “absolutely shameless extortion attempt”.
This member of the London Renters Union, a tenants' association, thus welcomes the extension from two to four months of the deadline for leaving the premises, also provided for by this reform. But, even with foresight, she estimates that it will take her six months to finalize the purchase of the property where she says she is “lucky” to move.
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