A BBC Panorama documentary that last night examined ‘no-fault’ evictions suggested that the system needed to change.
The documentary called Evicted for No Reason and presented by journalist Richard Bilton concluded by saying: “As a nation, we depend on private landlords.
“They say we need ‘no-fault’ evictions but for millions of tenants, that means no security and no place they can really call home.”
The programme followed the story of three different tenants who were facing eviction, as well as a landlord trying to evict a tenant from one of two flats she owns.
One family was served a Section 21 notice because the landlord wanted to put the rent up on their property — which appeared to be in a poor state of repair — by £400 a month and the tenants were unable to afford it.
Bilton followed them as they ended up in a B&B before eventually finding another property to rent that ended up forcing the family’s children to move school.
The move also resulted in tenant Laura McGlashan losing her job, which she claimed was because she spent so much time dealing with the consequences of the eviction.
The family arrived in their new rented home with almost no furniture because they had been unable to collect it from their last property and the landlord had stopped answering their calls.
Asked what she thought about Section 21, McGlashan said: “Section 21, I don’t think it has any value.
“I would like to see at least a viable, valid reason for the eviction that has to stand up in court.”
Another woman, Julie Archer, was served with a Section 21 notice on a property in Worcestershire that she had lived in for four years after she repeatedly made complaints about a leaking shower.
She was offered a new lease but didn’t sign it and was given an eviction notice.
The landlord claimed they had undertaken repairs but was fed up with her “trivial complaints”.
A third tenant, Ava Watt, works for a local council ended up living in council accommodation in a converted office block on an industrial estate in Croydon because she had nowhere else to go.
Meanwhile, landlord Frances Carpenter was shown trying to evict a tenant who had installed satellite TV in her flat and changed utility meters without permission.
The tenant had also paid rent late and asked to pay in installments, although it was reported that he had always paid eventually.
Evicted twice before by other landlords, the tenant asked the court to delay his eviction because he and his daughter had nowhere to go.
Carpenter, who had so far spent £1,000 trying to remove the tenant, with the prospect of more expense to come, described the process as “worrying, infuriating and extremely stressful”.
Asked if she thought she was being brutal for using a Section 21 notice, she replied that she thought the tenant had been brutal by making alterations to her property.
She said: “Tenants have all sorts of laws and things protecting them. What about the landlord?”
Bilton also spoke to Paul Shamplina from Landlord Action, who defended landlords’ use of Section 21 notices.
Shamplina said: “You have got to realise that 98% of tenancies go through swimmingly.
“Most landlords will never have to serve a notice and never have to evict a tenant in their lifetime of being a landlord.
“But when it happens it can be distressing.”
However, he also conceded: “I think it can be brutal and I really do feel for tenants that that does happen to.”
The programme also spoke to Landlord Action’s senior solicitor, Emma Philips who described Section 21 notices as “crucial”.
She said: “A Section 21 notice is very important because it means that landlords and tenants can draw a tenancy to an end and nobody is at fault and everybody knows where they stand.
“I think the rules and regulations currently are mostly in favour of the tenant.”
Meanwhile, Bilton went to Scotland to examine changes made to the law there two months ago that mean Scottish renters get tenancies “for life” provided they abide by certain conditions.
It painted a largely positive picture of the changes.
Bilton said: “There are worries about red tape but the new rules offer something for landlords too.”
He then went on to speak to a meeting of Scottish landlords who told him that under certain circumstances it was easier to get tenants out, without going to court, if they didn’t pay rent.
One landlord told him the changes “force people to become professional”.
The programme also briefly set out the views of the two major political parties, with Labour calling for an end to ‘no fault’ evictions everywhere, while the Government defended their use and said they give more protection to tenants and reduce barriers that block landlords offering longer tenancies.
You can view the full programme on iPlayer here.
The programme was rubbish, didn’t dig deep enough into whatever message it was trying to get across. I did feel for the family who were basically being moved around from house to house, the kids sleeping on the floor etc was a very heart wrenching sight. The choice of landlord was a curious one, a punk rocker with pink spiky hair, tattoos and moaning about her tenant because he had put sky in, made her angst seem completely irrelevant.
I am sure to most people watching they got little from the programme apart from apparently its now perfect in Scotland!
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Arthur, as a Scot who has left, let me assure you there is little about Scotland that is perfect. Weather apart of course.
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I was too busy polishing my nails last night to watch anything…therefore my life is just that little bit better today because of that fact!
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With the many thousands of pounds raised by Shelter, where were they last night when young children needed beds to sleep on rather than the floor when a landlord won’t return belongings? It’s not just about the court battle Shelter where you pocket unscrupulous amounts of money from these landlords in costs! Shame on you!!
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Shelter didn’t even offer housing to the victims of Grenfell Tower.
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A BBC somewhat biased report in my opinion.
No facts to how many evictions were under section 8 in comparison with how many under section 21. No investigation into why S. 21 was the chosen route. Sometime s21 is used due to certainty with separate action to recover owed rent. In such cases the fundamental reason for possession being breach of contract ie rent arrears. How many s21 evictions due to Osboune’s tax changes?
How many s8 notices used each year and how many s21 notices – NO STATISTICS! to show what is really happening.
Strange the same tenant suffered repeatedly – No investigation into the reason: Bad luck or an underlying problem with the tenant? Mr Bilton did not investigate the reason. One tenant was offered a new tenancy but did not want it so what choices did the landlord have???? clearly not a landlord specifically targeting a tenant if he/she was prepared to offer a new tenancy?
The lady from Croydon in in a borough where borough-wide licensing actively discourages landlord investment driving down supply.
There are controls already on how much rent can be raised if it is in dispute – No mention of this route of appeal. Moreover, will the landlord achieve the increased rent? Was it under-rented to start with? Of course no investigation into why! Landlord’s cannot afford to have property empty so there is normally a reason why possession is sought.
The mention it affects millions of tenants – well it doesn’t because the vast majority have no real problems with their landlords. Use of such terms is pure sensationalism rather than professionalism!
The Government have and continue to landlord bash and drive them out of investment in property. George Osbourne’s punitive tax changes further drives down supply and increases rents and will have caused a significant use of s21 to get highly geared landlords out of trouble.
Overall the BBC fell short of being unbiased in my view.
Failed to investigate why s21 were used.
Failed to explain how the courts already make s21 difficult with ever increasing rules relating to its use.
Failed to identify if some people are plain unlucky or if there was another undisclosed reason why their previous landlord chose s21.
The once respected BBC investigative journalists do not appear to be as unbiased as I remember them.
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24,000 evictions quoted the BBC, forgetting to add that the majority were by social landlords. Biased? Surely not.
Where were the relevant councils’ eponymous tenant relations officers, supposedly there to protect tenants from lousy landlords? And why did the council provide temporary accommodation in a filthy, un-inspected (I presume) condition?
For a reporter of Bilton’s experience – 10 years with Panorama – this piece does him no credit.
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Panorama used to be a quality, heavyweight news programme. It lost its way about ten years ago. Very poor reporting last night for the reasons identified by Will.
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NEWSFLASH Tenants being evicted take local authorities to the Court of Human Rights for having to suffer the degrading, embarrassing and considerable stress of an eviction before the Council consider re-homing them.
What about the additional expenses for landlords who have to suffer the extra cost, additional potential loss of rent and stress of having to send the bailiffs round to facilitate the above?
What about revenge upon eviction by some tenants who wreck a property prior to eviction even though they are in rent arrears?
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In years gone by I used to manage 500 or so properties on behalf of landlords.
We ALWAYS used an initial 6 month AST, followed by a year AST with a 6 month break clause, and repeated if the tenant wished to stay longer. Every now and again we would do 1 or 2 year contracts, but usually to corporate tenants which is a whole different ball game.
It was extremely rare for our landlords to need to serve notices but we always used a S21 notice because it makes legal sense.
Our average tenancy length was just over 18 months.
A section 21 notice is a perfectly normal way to regain possession of a rented property and there is nothing wrong with it.
Given the tax changes and additional responsibilities being heaped on landlords almost daily, picking 3 extreme examples of the application of an S21 notice seems to me to be wholly biased.
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The BBC are just as guilty of feeding us with a diet of crapola reality TV as the others – this was just a natural extension of that. People won’t watch Beige TV, so they have to show the extremes…..
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The Panorama crew came and filmed in our offices all morning and I was interviewed for some time. This was always likely to be a pro-tenant feature, but I would have liked to have seen greater focus on the social housing crisis and a better balance between the issues faced by both landlords and tenants. I expected it to be heavily edited but here are some of the important points I made that were not included.
1. The Private Rental Sector has almost doubled in the last 10 years
2. Councils are still encouraging tenants to stay put in a property until they are evicted so that they do not make themselves voluntarily homeless.
3. The majority of landlords are using section 21 because the tenants are in arrears. Most of the time, they just want their property back so that they can try and recoup losses and so are prepared to write off the arrears and any legal costs owing.
4. Many landlords are selling their properties and exiting the PRS because of Section 24 and impending tax liabilities
5. If Section 21 is abolished, it will be another nail in the coffin for Landlords. More landlords will exit the market and more properties will be lost from the PRS, further fueling the housing crisis
Even though the show was heavily edited, it’s better to be involved and try wherever possible to give landlords a voice.
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‘Even though the show was heavily edited, it’s better to be involved and try wherever possible to give landlords a voice.’
Well said!
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Paul, I have no problems with your interview at all. I have attended a number of your presentations at Landlord Shows and I agree it is better your were there even if relevant information was edited out. The strong political drive to landlord bash will come back to haunt them in time; as it did with the Rent Act. However, if they don’t understand the history and wish to put their heads in the sand those telling the truth will always have the last laugh. The “nightmare tenants slum landlords” series often give a slightly more realistic story but even in these cases the sensationalist journalists always focus on condensation mould as it is very visual and in many cases caused by tenants drying washing in un-ventilated areas. When they complain of mice and rats you see the sink piled high with washing up and food left out and places filthy attracting the vermin they complain of. Joe public do not really understand what they see. This is all a mild version of Trump’s Fake News I guess. For those of us of a certain age there was a difference between “professionals” and trades: under that definition reporters now fall into the trades as they sensationalise their reports. When I trained it was as a professional in a profession – it went wrong in the early 80’s when people started to say they were in the property industry!!!
Thanks for continuing the fight of putting both sides of the argument more fairly than the BBC on this occasion.
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Why did s.21 become so important to landlords?
Because s.8 evictions do not work.
In fact s.21 evictions do not work either when it takes 6 months.
Landlords do not want to be able to evict on a whim, and they do not want to evict good tenants. They want bad tenants out quickly.
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I’ve always viewed Section 21’s as the no-fault, or default way of getting a Landlord back an empty property. It’s the fairest way, as it gives at least two months to find a new property, and in most cases I have dealt with, my Landlords are happy for a tenant to either leave a bit early or a bit late to coincide with their new home.
I have only used Section 8 as a threat, for high rent arrears with no attempt to reduce them, flagrant disregard of the tenancy agreement and so forth. And to be fair, when I issue a S8 I also send a S21 so that I can start court proceedings sooner if the Tenant refuses to leave, as some have in the past. Usually when they call the Council and they tell them to just stay in the property until we instruct bailiffs.
On those occasions I have blatantly told the Tenant that it is stupid advice as if they do not leave on the instructions of the council, I will take them to court, I will instruct bailiffs and they will be removed from the property irrespective of if they have another place to go, and the costs for all this will be added to the money that they already owe the Landlord.
The Section 21 is basically the Landlord’s version of giving notice to leave. And lets face it, a Tenant only has to give one months notice…
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Why would a landlord want to kick out a tenant? Section 21 is there when the tenant misbehaves or the landlord wishes to stop renting. Very little use by landlords for no-reason. Of all the Section 21 notices we have used over decades, have been to get rid of tenants no-one wants, often having been rejected by local authorities. The decision to use the notice was made by the tenant, often after many warnings! Governments of all parties have abused the private rental sector, using it to cover their inadequacies and bail them out of social housing shortage. MP’s should be made to rent their properties out for 6 months, not receive any rent and clear up the filth left … then they wouldn’t be so keen! Time tenants were convicted for “offences breaching tenancy agreement”, then maybe they would behave. As it is, everything is geared up, encouraging them to default with little, to no redress for thier behaviour. Fee ban is the icing on, far left liberal idiology. I’ve never known a good landlord kick out a good tenant, a relationship that lasts years and years.
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Programme heavily biased against landlords, and failed to acknowledge that majority of “no-fault” evictions do have a reason, just that not necessary to have to specify in the proceedings. All decent LL desire to keep their TT long-term so long as abide by the spirit of the lease with applying some grace (which unfortunately was not displayed on the programme). Change in Scotland to a PRT has yet to be proven on ease and efficiency of ending the lease as the FTT have only recently been set up, and is unlikely to be as easy or quick as implied. Also for our E&W compatriots, with the abolition of the “no-fault clause” our tenants can now move in today and give one month’s notice to quit tomorrow – thus incurring all the set-up charges once again and potential void and council tax charges.
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Isn’t it amazing that the BBC can go to a smaller country (Scotland) and find a room full of Landlords, but the only English landlord they “can find” is a disgruntled punk rocker, who’s trivial complaint about a sky dish on a building full of sky dishes is deemed as reason enough to serve an eviction notice?
I would love to see the actual production costs of this totally bias program please?
If you could pop it in an envelope with my license fee refund!
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