The knock on the door can come without warning. There’s an agent of your landlord standing on your doorstep with a letter, telling you that you have two months to move out. There’s no reason given, and you’ve done nothing wrong. But very soon you could be facing the reality that you will have to leave the place you’ve called home, and you may end up with nowhere to live.
This may seem unfair, but it’s legal. Known as Section 21 or ‘no-fault’ evictions, such action has become the most common type of eviction in the UK. As well as causing anxiety for tenants, these evictions are also the country’s leading cause of homelessness. Since 2011, 78 percent of homeless households that presented to local councils were on the streets following an eviction.
According to Shelter’s Graeme Brown, the state of the rental market is to blame: “The rise in homelessness lays bare the devastating impact that expensive and unstable private renting is having on people’s lives. What’s worse is that behind these shocking statistics, we know there are thousands more renters living in constant fear that just one slip up – like a cut in hours or sudden rent rise – could leave them homeless.”
The problem is only getting worse, especially in Hackney. According to Shelter, the borough has both the tenth highest level of homelessness in the country and has seen the biggest rise in house prices nationwide over the past 20 years. Landlords evict for all kinds of reasons, but often to avoid making basic repairs that tenants have requested, or even to squeeze them for higher rent.
“Something that’s common in Hackney is, because it’s somewhere that’s become a much more popular place to live, landlords are able to raise the rent by a huge amount every year because they know they’ll be able to get new tenants in. And so, they use this threat of an eviction to put pressure on tenants to either move out or accept the high rent increase,” explained Dan Wilson, Director of Generation Rent.
“The problem with Section 21 is that it creates problems throughout the housing market. For the tenants who get one of these evictions, they have no way of appealing it if it’s valid. In many cases, it’s because the landlord is wanting to sell or wants to evade their responsibilities to make the home fit for human habitation.”
Thankfully, Generation Rent is fighting back. As part of its ‘End Unfair Evictions’ campaign, it is calling the government to scrap Section 21 evictions. The argument is that, as well as leaving tenants homeless, it allows landlords to get away with shoddy housing while lining their own pockets.
And now, Hackney Council have joined in the fight. As part of its #BetterRenting campaign, the council has committed to putting pressure on the government to put an end to unfair evictions.
“With renting privately now the only option for many people in Hackney, it’s a disgrace that so many families are denied a stable and secure home due to the government’s failure to give renters the protection they deserve,” said Cllr Sem Moema, Mayoral Adviser for Private Renting and Housing Affordability.
“That’s why we’re challenging them to put an end to no-fault evictions – the main barrier to a stable home for renters and a leading cause of homelessness in Hackney.”
Getting councils onside is crucial in tackling this problem. “From the council’s perspective it’s really important for two reasons. One is that the leading cause of homelessness is eviction from privately rented homes and Section 21 is the most common type of eviction. People who are made homeless as a result of these evictions have to go to their council and so it makes sense for councils to be calling for reform, like the end of Section 21,” Dan explained.
“The other thing that councils struggle to do is protect tenants from revenge evictions. In theory, if you’re living in an unsafe home, you can ask the council to come and inspect, and then force the landlord to make repairs. But the councils don’t always have the resources or the capacity to do that enforcement work. And without that enforcement work tenants aren’t protected from eviction.”
Protection from Section 21 evictions would allow tenants to feel more confident in complaining about unfair conditions, and councils would be able to take more effective actions against rogue landlords. Removing the financial strain of caring for those made needlessly homeless would also be a huge relief for Hackney Council, which is facing a further £30 million in cuts by 2022.
