Housing minister pledges to speed up possessions for landlords

Rachel Maclean

The housing minister Rachel Maclean has pledged to “guarantee” that landlords will be able to repossess properties more swiftly through the courts as part of reforms to the rental market.

The promise was made by the minister at a fringe event held at the Conservative Party conference.

The Renters (Reform) Bill will see Section 21 repossessions ended. The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has warned that the replacement system will fail without urgent reforms to ensure the courts are able to swiftly process possession claims where landlords have good cause.

It currently takes an average of over half a year between a private landlord making a claim to repossess a property through the courts to it actually happening. The NRLA warns that this is simply too long, especially where tenants might be committing anti-social behaviour or if they are in extreme rent arrears.

The housing minister has pledged that the courts will process such cases more quickly. She told the fringe event that it was “very important” that alongside the Renters (Reform) Bill landlords had “a guarantee” that where possession cases do end up in court, they will be processed much faster than at present.

Ben Beadle, chief executive of the NRLA, commented: “Without the confidence of knowing that where they have good cause they can regain their property swiftly, the exodus of landlords from the market will continue. All this will do is make it even harder for renters to find a place to live.

“The minister’s comments are welcome, but they need to be backed up by clear plans setting out actions that will be taken and a timeframe for implementation. That must include investment in new staff and greater use of technology to process cases more swiftly.”

 

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8 Comments

  1. MrManyUnits

    I’m just going to make certain I have joint and several house owning guarantors for each property,

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  2. JMK

    Well is she’s promising it then it must be true! 😀

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    1. A W

      Of course! The government never lies!

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  3. hsillo@gklgroup.co.uk

    Promises, promises……………..
    But no plan of action. I suspect like a lot of politicians “promises” it will not come to pass. Just how are they planning to miraculously cure the current court wait times. The reforms completely ignore the rights of a private landlord. The balance has swung too far the other way. No right minded landlord gets rid of a good tenant that pays on time . This bill has more to do with stopping millions of people who can’t pay/wont pay back onto the local councils to provide non existent housing. They need to remember private landlords are exactly that. They don’t have to provide housing to anyone and the more difficult it gets, the more people are selling up and getting out. There are other places to invest that give better returns and a lot less hassle.

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  4. AgentBen

    Judging by the history of the positions tenure, she has been in post for roughly 7/8 months, which means she likely has around 6 months left at best. Not enough time to achieve anything.

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    1. LVW4

      Before I retired, I was offering automated and virtual court management software solutions. Case Management Conferences would have been fast and efficient, with all attendees online and evidence available digitally. Updates to questions would be provided in real time. No need for attendance. The UK wasn’t interested because they were already investing £100 million! Well, we can all see how effective that’s been.

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  5. Diogenes

    If you serve s21 today, which will come first? A court date or a general election.

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  6. Jason Coombes

    I’ve have written to this minister on several occasions (my ‘local’ MP) whenever the RICS or Propertymark request we write on pressing issues and their have been many since 2015 alone. Not a single reply back ever…how the hell can someone so unintersted in housing issues get this position and how are we as an industry supposed to believe her? Another useless minister.

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