New possession grounds proposed by Renters Rights Bill ‘could offer a helping hand to landlords’

A significant proportion of private landlords think that possession grounds proposed by the Renters Rights Bill could provide them with a helping hand, according to a new survey.

A number of landlords are concerned about the abolition of section 21  evictions, proposed in both the new Renters Rights Bill and the previous government’s Renters Reform Bill. But new possession grounds could help make up for this.

The research, conducted by buy-to-let lender Landbay, asked landlords whether the new Bill’s expanded Section 8 possession grounds would be helpful. These include mandatory grounds such as occupation by landlord or family, the sale of a residential property, when a superior lease ends, possession by a superior landlord, and possession to allow compliance with enforcement action.

Almost 40% of landlords in the survey said the possession grounds would be helpful while 28% said they wouldn’t be.

A landlord told Landbay: “Tenants should be dealt with fairly. Landlords should respond in good time to genuine issues but they should however be allowed to deal with problem tenants swiftly and firmly.”

But another thought that the Section 8 process would still be too protracted. They said: “I don’t believe in the abolition of section 21 as it will put a lot of financial pressure on landlords when a tenant does not pay rent and has to go down the lengthy process of section 8 to get a property back.”

The survey showed that nearly all of the landlords knew about the new Bill, with only nine per cent saying they were not aware of it.

Rob Stanton, sales and distribution director at Landbay, commented: “New possession grounds could offer a helping hand to landlords in the face of abolition of section 21s.

“Good landlords far outweigh the bad and, despite a somewhat bumpy market at the moment, demand continues to outstrip supply.

“As a buy-to-let lender, we are here to help should landlords need extra financing. We remain committed to doing our bit to help, innovating to meet the needs of landlords.”

 

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4 Comments

  1. jeremy1960

    As the world moves towards being online for everything, the UK government decides to ignore online possession in the PRS, insisting on court appearance!

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    1. LVYO30

      3 years ago, I proposed an online digital AI-supported court solution for England & Wales, and used ‘possessions’ as an example of how it would streamline and accelerate the process, at much lower cost.

      Their response was they are already well down the line with a [costly and over-specified] new system. 3 years on, and we are no further forward.

      I suspect the idea that the process could be accelerated did not fit with the judiciary’s wish to delay evictions for as long as possible.

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  2. Davidjd

    If you ask landlords

    “If section 25 is abolished would expanded Section 8 possession grounds be helpful?”.

    The answer is obviously going to be yes. I don’t understand why only 40% said yes !

    As usual a survey asking questions where the answer is already known.

    The problem is that section 8 is not fit for purpose.

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  3. Rosebush

    s21 was actually more advantageous to tenants than landlords who just wrote off rent arrears. We will now see more tenants with a CCJ against them and no hope of ever finding another tenancy. No judge will ever find for a landlord who wants to evict a tenant because of a pet even though the landlord had the right to refuse. Pet damage insurance, does this actually exist? Can we trust a tenant to take out this very expensive policy year on year. Most tenants don’t even bother with contents insurance. With a landlord not having a legal right to inspect his own property we will never know if a tenant has a pet and many will lie when they make an application to rent. I don’t allow pets in my small block of flats because all of my tenants work full time and the pets will be left alone all day. Can I insist they use a dog walker or dog sitter. Two of my tenants now have cats, they are house cats. We have no outside storage for bins. I dread to think where they dispose of the cat litter. In my opinion tenants just ignore the no pet rule.

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