AIBU to worry about Section 21 ending causing mass evictions?

[Itsabingthin]

Has anyone noticed mass evictions happening due to the section 21 ending? In may the new law will make it harder for landlords to evict tenants so a lot are evicting tenants now, even good ones.

My friend got a surprise eviction notice yesterday and she is in temporary housing as it is. The neighbours opposite me are also getting evicted. These are no fault evictions.

Where will all these families go?

Landlord’s groups have been warning of this for years.
I am not currently being proactive in asking tenants to leave, but will sell rather than re let when a property becomes empty.
Even though wishing to sell will be a ground for eviction from May the loss of Section 21 is still a concern. It was quicker than Section 8, and more efficient.
Section 21 had become increasingly difficult to use though as there were a number of things which hindered it. Fair enough there should have been penalties for non compliance, and it could be argued that there is no excuse for mistakes.
One omission regarding a gas safety certificate at the start of a tenancy rendered it unusable under any circumstance.
There will probably be a rush by affected landlords to use the new legislation in May, which will reduce the number of rental properties even further.
I think there is a need for private sector rental
property, but I feel it should be additional to social housing for long term homes, not in place of it.
I feel very sorry for people losing their homes, and those whose landlords are selling to companies who will very likely hike the rent.

Out of interest, what is it about the new rules that are so bad? You can still evict to sell the property, move in yourself, move your family in or for bad behaviour on the tenant’s behalf. Not that I expect it to be any easier to evict a bad tenant than it is now, but what other reasons do people have for wanting to evict than those reasons which will still be available?

Fair enough for people whose setup means they’re losing money for whatever reason, but for someone whose rental is profitable I’m not sure I quite understand the mass exodus.

I wondered this too.

We rent, have been here 10 years, always paid on time, look after the house, fix and decorate ourselves (with ll permission). They rarely hear from us unless it's something major.

I was panicking a bit after reading similar posts on mn that we might get an s21 as our contract is about to expire. But we've just renewed so all good for another year. I just don't understand why people are evicting tenants in a similar position to us, you can still evict if you want to sell/move in etc under the new rules, so why now?

My parents own 5 properties and it's becoming increasingly harder to evict bad tenants. They've also found they will make more money by selling up and putting the money in a bank as they earn more interest than renting them out.

Yes and potentially miles away from school, work etc

Good!!! Having been evicted as a family it's devastating. Keep on being nice the world needs more nice people

hi, I grew up in a council flat & tried to better myself, school, qualifications etc. had heard always ‘invest in bricks & mortar’ etc, so that’s what I did! Unfortunately I got a few buy to let’s just before the crash of 07 (I definitely could have done with a crystal ball) 🤦🏼‍♀️ hey ho. Now half are sold and the rest to follow.. I have had some terrible tenants, loss of rent for many months, awful/willful damage, zero profit/negative equity! There are much better ways to make a good return, landlords (good ones) have been hammered by successive governments (the bad ones don’t give a shite anyway). Many are selling up and to me that makes perfect sense- but where are all the tenants supposed to go - I have no idea?

Flat prices have reduced massively where I'm based. People are actually considering buying now instead of providing their landlord with an unearned income stream. Fantastic!

The people selling instead of being landlords aren’t not nice. It’s a business arrangement.

Hopefully the government will bring in rent controls next, like there used to be, so homes are places where people live not just their investment opportunities

A lot of landlords are absolutely not in step with the other legislation, and will incur huge expenses getting properties up to standard. As an example mine had an epc check, and the recommendations to get it to c by 2030 were for 30k+ of energy efficiency recommendations. It scraped an e. (Legal minimum). The electrical check revealed a further 2k would need to be spent , and there are a zillion other updates needed.
My landlord has instructed a letting agent to manage the new legislation, and they’ve made it it very clear we’ll be expecting a massive rent hike to “keep in line with market rates ” ie, take most of the hit of these improvements.
My landlord was very much a ‘no social security tenants’ type when we moved in. So much so that when my life was in crisis some years back , and really the best option would have been to take time out to claim benefits , I didn’t dare for fear of losing my home.
Anyway now they’re hoping and praying that suddenly we do claim benefits, any benefits ,(we don’t) and asking all sorts of intrusive questions about our health and income so as they can have us claim warm home grants to pay for their renovations.

A similar law was implemented in Ireland. Changes from March for new tenants.
Existing tenants come stay under old rules and I can confirm that there is currently mass evictions going on.
Landlord can raise the rent to the current market value 2800 for new tenants. Old tenants still restricted under old rules so they’re out.
We bought in 2016. My rent before we moved was €900, the same apartment is now 2600.
It is not easy on either the landlord or tenants.
I am very sad to see two neighbours who have been issued with eviction orders. Entire estates are being evicted. 😢

Whilst I do fully agree that it's a business arrangement and should be treated as such, I don't understand why good landlords are evicting good tennants simply due to the new rules.

I can understand not reletting once tennants leave or just not getting into it at all but if you're a decent landlord what is there to be worried about?

I think the hotel rooms are currently full

I’m a LL and have chosen to stay in the game for the foreseeable. I’ve had a good tenant for 3 years and I’ve just renewed his contract. He’s very happy to stay on. I inspect the house every 6-9 months and respond to his requests for maintenance promptly.
Seems to work for us, although I’ve had some dreadful high maintenance tenants over the years, so understand the utter reluctance of LLs to continue with the changes the government are making.

If he decides to leave, then I will sell.

Theres going to be a real housing crisis in the rental sector very soon… and no one has woken up to it yet.

Yanbu

But people are getting what they wanted.
What they rallied for for years...

"Accidental landlords", couples who both had a flat when they met then held back one as a btl were vilified, Brenda and dave who bought somewhere with the pension lump sum..... they were all told they were scum who caused the housing crisis.

They are now all forced out of rentals leaving faceless corporations.
As someone said somewhere on here...
"If you landlord is Katy and Dave you can phone them explain you are having a rough month and the rents late but its coming... chances are they'll understand....good luck with that when Black Rock is your landlord...."

I sold my (owned outright) rental in Ireland due to this (similar regs coming in) I charged way under market rate (like 800pm under market rate!) to a nice local couple they'd been there 6 years. They work low wage jobs and are looking at an 800-1000 euro pm increase in outgoings

Unfortunately when you now renew, come the new rules you WILL be on a rolling tenancy, irrespective of the timeline you signed up for.

Yes that sounds good but the main reason that flat prices have reduced is because of the increase in service charges mainly due to the increase in energy prices and labour costs so the poor purchasers will be paying for this. And this is if they can even get a mortgage as a lot of lenders will not offer mortgages on properties where the annual service charge is more than 1% of the value of the property.

We had our lovely tenants of many years move out as they bought their first house. We are good landlords, accidental landlords of one flat. We had thirty two applications for the flat in a week, many having been served notice, some having had large rent increases. The tenant who we will be giving the lease to has been given notice as his landlord is selling up.So many people will be homeless.As usual good landlords will pay the price for bad landlords, and good tenants will suffer too.

Fair point but it suppose it does suggest they're not immediately kicking us out.

This does also add weight to the question as to why good landlords are evicting good tennants due to the new rules

Not true. One year guaranteed for tenant but they can give two months notice at any time.

The worst is that a lot of bad landlords will be evicting tenants who’ve put up with substandard accommodation for years, and paid their landlords mortgages. As soon as substandard legally means inescapable costs for the landlord , tenants find themselves homeless 🤷‍♀️ .

We’re selling up, but are in the process of selling tenanted to avoid evicting our tenants

Can someone please answer the pp who
asked what it is about the new rules that make being a (decent) landlord so difficult?

Yes. 2 of my kids have been evicted as the landlord is selling. The properties will probably be bought by hedge funds which have started to invest in property ( also in the US and Australia) which is definitely not good news for renters or buyers. The government has totally screwed up with these reforms.