Evictions specialist Paul Shamplina has again hit out at the impending change in the law which will prevent landlords from being able to evict tenants who complain about disrepair in their property.

So-called ‘revenge’ or ‘retaliatory’ evictions are set to be outlawed in October via the Deregulation Act, with landlords and agents being unable to evict tenants whose complaints have been accepted by the local authority.

But many in the industry fear that non-paying tenants will simply complain in order to stave off eviction, with local councils having to spend time investigating complaints.

The issue is due to be highlighted on television tomorrow night over a landlord, Franc Coutinho, who had been renting out his property in north London for six years without a problem until his latest tenant moved in.

Within six weeks, problems began with paying the rent, with the tenant reporting allegedly false issues with the boiler to avoid paying rent.

Despite numerous visits by plumbers to the property, when rent was due the boiler mysteriously stopped working. Unable to take any more and facing financial ruin, Franc started the eviction process.

However, when his day in court arrived, the tenant made a surprise show, filed a last-minute defence – again about the faulty boiler – and delayed the eviction by months.

Shamplina, founder of Landlord Action and who appears in the programme, said:  “Sadly we see far too many cases like this.

“It is one of the many reasons we have fought so hard to prevent law changes in relation to retaliation eviction because we fear we will see more and more cases like this if tenants are able to use delay tactics by reporting bogus issues of disrepair.

“Upon checking out the property it was clear there was nothing wrong with the boiler but the delay at court meant poor Franc was left with months of unpaid rent and legal fees. Having to pay two mortgages, he was on the brink of bankruptcy.”

The programme is due to feature two other landlords facing financial ruin as a result of troublesome tenants.

The episode’s second case features landlord Dipan Doshi who had been renting his flat out to a family of four for 18 months but for the past year barely received a penny in rent, and was owed over £12,000. With a wife on maternity leave, he could not just walk away from this amount of money, so started the ball rolling in getting the money and his property back.

In the other case, after being out of pocket to the tune of £7,000 in unpaid rent, landlord Louise McKinlay had her tenant evicted, but once she’s in the property she found that just because the tenant has gone, it was not the end of the nightmare.

The second episode of Channel 5’s ‘Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords’ is due to air tomorrow at 9pm.