Government sneaks loophole into eviction ban.

[MercyBooth]

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eviction-ban-loophole-substantial-arrears-six-months-b1784836.html

All in this together folks All in this together. Make sure you tenants keep wearing your masks to protect your "betters"

It’s the “I told you so” I will hear from my mother that hurts the most.

Those arrests in Scotland, now this.....we are not in this together.

What about the landlord though? This us if haven't paid the rent for 6 months. How long should this go on? Mortgages still need paying...

The law is swayed in the tenant's protection. (Perhaps rightly) But it is definitely rough for the landlord, who can be short of 9months rent arears, with no likelihood of ever getting the money. Nobody wins.

Protections can't go on forever. If landlords can't pay mortgages, they and the tenants will lose the properties when they're repossessed.

My next door neighbour is not paying the £3k per month rent on the property despite working throughout lockdown. He told my DH that he has been busy throughout and his company has lots of work! He has even laughingly told another neighbour that the landlord cannot afford the property and would sell it at a loss - which of course the landlord can’t do whilst the tenant is still in the house. The landlord is facing financial ruin because the tenant is playing the system. How many more are doing this?

The government said nobody should lose their homes; surely this means the landlord too? No rent for months would lead to homes being repossessed.

Great fully support that amendment.

6 months rent is a lot to owe. With housing benefit people should be able to keep it at less than that.

My tenant has fallen behind with the rent during the pandemic equivalent to two months rent.
But now has 3 more mouths to feed (dogs).
Not allowed within the Tenancy agreement.

Fully support this. The original protections were generous but they can’t last forever. The tenants won’t have a house to live in if the landlord is forced to sell.

The exemptions can’t last forever. Landlords need to pay their mortgages. And I say this as a someone l who has had £0 income since March except for SEISS.

I’m a tenant and I support this. Six months’ rent is huge. And the landlord needs to pay the mortgage without money coming in.

It might actually be more helpful for tenants. If I owed six months rent that would be ten grand. I would have no realistic prospect of paying it back whilst also paying future rents. Nor would I have a deposit, month’s rent in advance or pass a refit check to move anywhere else.

The council wouldn’t house me unless I got evicted. At which point they would have to assist and I wouldn’t be building up more and more arrears.

My landlady is lovely but she has her own family and expenses, she couldn’t e expected to subsidise mine forever

165EatonPlace as she owes you two months’ rent you can apply to have the housing element of her benefits plus arrears paid directly to you, I believe.

I think this isn’t really a change because section 8 proceedings were going ahead already (for large arrears)
Very much doubt that bailiffs will be evicting people quite yet
But it will be carnage once they do start. People are not being housed by councils properly - and that’s those with kids. They’re in really appalling hostels. If you’ve not got kids you’re on the streets.

No chance of getting a new job for most people.
Private landlords are still discriminating against housing benefit despite this being against discrimination law , and in a lot of areas housing benefit isn’t high enough to cover rent anyway

This is going to be absolutely awful

If landlords can't pay mortgages, they and the tenants will lose the properties when they're repossessed

But they won't, as they can only be sold to people with the sitting tenant who can't be evicted, so they'll be sold to professional landlords getting a good deal, at some point they might lose the property, but then you're argument is that throwing them out sooner is in some way a good thing?

The landlord chose to run a business with significant risk, when risk hits, they lose the capital, that's to be expected, losing capital isn't a massive deal.

Ok then...

Are we talking about tenants who just stopped paying entirely? Surely someone unable to work would be getting benefits and paying some/all of it?

Is this to close a different loophole with some anti-social tenants saying "ha! I don't have to pay you if I don't want to" ?

"The landlord chose to run a business with significant risk, when risk hits, they lose the capital, that's to be expected,"

Not by the government ruling that they tenants don't have to pay. I Imagine if we did that with supermarkets they would have something to say about it.

"losing capital isn't a massive deal" What does that mean? Do you just ask daddy for another million?

We have neighbours who haven't paid the landlord rent since the day they moved in (pre covid) they clearly play the system in every house they move into (with fake references) and a result of the protections brought in have been living rent free since June 2019. They have had non-stop parties and gatherings. It is totally unfair that they are still getting away with avoiding eviction.

As so many have said, difficult though this is the measures couldn't last for ever
Even on a property that isn't mortgaged tenants can't expect to avoid paying indefinitely, and building up bigger and bigger debts hardly helps in the long run

Good. Completely agree with that.