By any account 2020 has been a turbulent year for landlords.
The legislation surrounding issuing notices to vacate has been amended numerous
times as a result of the pandemic and (hopefully) all landlords are aware that
Section 21 Notices, the so-called ‘no fault eviction’ are due to be abolished
as soon as parliamentary time allows. But what are the possible consequences of
this?
In layman’s terms, if ‘no fault’ evictions are off the
cards, then any eviction will be fault based and therefore subject to legal
proceedings and a relevant court order. Given the significant backlog faced by
courts the only certainty we have is that proceedings will be a long time
coming and incur significant costs.
Looking ahead, it seems that some form of rent control will
become inevitable as an unintended consequence of this – here’s an obvious
example why. In a post Section 21 Notice world, landlord X wants their property
back, but the tenant wants to stay and is up to date with their rent and has
been an exemplary tenant. The obvious solution is to increase the rent to such
an extent that the tenant can no longer afford to stay, and the landlord
regains vacant possession as intended. This completely undermines the intent
behind the abolition of the Section 21 Notice but would appear to be entirely
valid unless the legislation enshrines some form of protection by way of rent
control.
Watch this space…..
