Growing numbers of private tenants are turning to Citizens Advice after facing eviction despite being up to date with their rent.

Some of the tenants seeking help say they have been given notice after moving on to housing benefit.

Citizens Advice is accusing landlords of greed.

The charity says it has seen a 38% increase eviction-related problems where arrears are not an issue. Its bureaux have dealt with more than 5,000 requests for advice in 2013/14 compared with 3,750 the previous year.

Problems in London and the south east are particularly acute, as twice as many tenants asked for advice in the first three months of 2014.

Bureaux in other regions dealt with 900 problems caused by people being evicted without arrears in January to March 2014, compared with 400 during the same period in 2013.

Citizens Advice says people are being told to quit because the landlord wants to sell up, wishes to raise rents, or after tenants have asked landlords for arrears.

Some tenants are being given notice when they inform their landlord that their circumstances have changed and they have moved on to housing benefit, even if they have not fallen behind with their rent.

The charity says that the increasing trend of evictions coincides with rises in house prices.

Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Tenants are being treated as cash cows as a chronic housing shortage pushes up prices and forces renters out of their homes.

“Competition for properties means that tenants are easy to replace, increasing insecurity for people trying to create a home in the private rented sector.

“We see people who will be forced to move away from work, school or family and friends, which can ramp up commuting and childcare costs or disrupt children’s education.

“We desperately need more new homes to tackle Britain’s woefully inadequate housing supply. Until this happens, we’ll continue seeing evictions rocket as tenants are left at the mercy of rising rents and insecure tenancies.”

She added that if they are evicted, tenants have tto find hundreds of pounds for a deposit and advance rent “plus an average of £350 in letting fees”, sometimes just a few months after paying out for the original property.

The charity also said that tenants are coming to Citizens Advice because landlords are unfairly keeping hold of deposits, refusing to carry out repairs or are harassing their tenants.

Over the past year, June 2013 to May 2014, 150,000 people sought advice on renting from a private landlord on the charity’s website, a 13% increase on the year before.