Imagine being told you must leave your home in two months but not being told why.
According to figures released this month by the Labour Party1 this is happening to 40 families in England every day, by landlords using a ‘section 21 notice’.
Vneeta, our in-house solicitor, is encountering an increasing number of section 21 no-fault eviction notices which do not need to include a reason for the eviction of tenants – despite the government promising in 2019 to end the practice. To date, and despite repeated promises, no new legislation has been passed to ensure this happens.
The government’s own data2 shows that almost 6,000 households in England were threatened with homelessness with a section 21 notice between April and June 2022.
What exactly is a section 21 notice?
Section 21 notices are allowed under the 1988 Housing Act and permit property owners to evict tenants without providing a reason.
It’s the first step a landlord must take to make a renter leave their home. Anyone getting this notice would usually have two months to move.
For anyone that doesn’t leave in this time, a landlord can apply to court to evict a renter.
An English problem
Section 21 legislation is not consistent across the UK – with renters in England coming off worse.
In Wales, all tenants get six months’ notice if they are forced to leave their property with a section 21 notice.
Scotland ended no-fault evictions in 2017 by abolishing fixed-term contracts and making it harder for landlords to evict tenants.
In Northern Ireland, if a landlord wants to end a tenancy on a “no-fault” basis, the length of the notice depends on how long the tenant has lived there.
A way of ignoring renter concerns
Fellow charity Shelter recently commissioned a YouGov survey of private renting adults in England3 which revealed that tenants who had issues with their properties, and complained to landlords about disrepair, were more than twice as likely to be handed a section 21 notice than those who had not.
The research found that 76% of private renters in England have experienced disrepair in the last year, and a quarter of renters had not asked for repairs to be carried out due to fear of eviction.
The local picture
Vneeta from law firm Turpin and Miller LLP, spends three days a week at Launchpad working with clients to ensure they are treated lawfully by landlords, local authorities housing associations and other agencies across Reading.
She said: “I am surprised that the figure isn’t substantially higher given the numbers of Section 21 orders I’m encountering daily, where the recipients of such notices have dependents living with them too.”
In March, we saw the highest number of people coming through our doors seeking help at our free drop-in service (compared to January and February 2023).
In the last three months (January, February and March) almost 80 people sought urgent housing advice and more than 70 people came to our drop-in who are homeless.
What next for Section 21’s?
As of April 2023, promised legislative changes remain just promises but this may change by the end of May. (*Edit: The Renters Reform Bill had its first reading in Parliament on Wednesday 17 May).
The government has recently proposed to let landlords evict anti-social tenants within two weeks. These plans have been widely criticised by housing charities amid fears that even if section 21’s are scrapped, renters will still be vulnerable and at risk of being affected by loopholes that could lead to homelessness.
Vneeta added: “It isn’t good enough to substitute no-fault evictions with an alternative route that lets landlords evict their tenants just as easily. That, in my view, isn’t the resolution. There needs to be stronger safeguards to protect private renters.”
Su Hamblyn, CEO of Launchpad, said: “For some years now there have been promises made about scrapping Section 21 evictions, but families, single people and couples in our area are being forced to get out of their homes despite doing nothing wrong.
“Launchpad will continue to support people who have found themselves affected by Section 21s, but unless legislation changes, this will continue to be an issue.”