Landlord Action, housing law specialist and part of the Hamilton Fraser Group, has calculated that the number of rental property repossessions carried out on behalf of landlords across England and Wales has increased by one thousand four hundred and eighty seven per cent annually.
The reason for the headline-grabbing percentage rise is that it marks the result of the ending of the eviction ban during the Covid crisis.
Tenant evictions and their wider welfare within the rental market have long been a hot topic within the sector. In fact, the Government released their latest plans to improve rental sector standards on 16 June via The White Paper – A Fairer Private Rented Sector.
One of the primary initiatives includes the abolition of Section 21 evictions, which will provide tenants with greater security and prevent landlords from evicting them without establishing fault on the side of the tenant.
The latest government data shows that over the last year (2021-22), some 12,965 rental properties were repossessed on behalf of the nation’s landlords.
This marks a 1,487 per cent increase on the previous year, but during the pandemic, tenant evictions were banned to safeguard those struggling financially between March 2020 and May 2021. As a result, only cases where it was deemed necessary were processed, meaning that there were just 817 rental properties repossessed during 2020-21.
In fact, the 12,965 repossessions seen over the last year is actually fifty six per cent fewer than the 29,347 recorded in the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20.
What’s more, the level of rental homes being repossessed on an annual basis had already been declining steadily year on year, down from 35,046 in 2017-18 to 33,113 in 2018-19.
But it’s not just the total number of repossessions that’s on the slide. The latest data shows that total repossessions account for just twenty six per cent of all initial claims made by landlords.
While this was far lower for obvious reasons during 20-21 at just four per cent, it’s a lower proportion than 2019-20 (28 per cent), 2018-19 (28 per cent) and 2017-18 (27 per cent).
Eddie Hooker, CEO of the Hamilton Fraser Group, who operate industry schemes such as mydeposits, the Property Redress Scheme and Client Money Protect, as well as Landlord Action says:
“At first glance, it would appear as though the floodgates have opened where the repossession of rental properties is concerned, but this isn’t quite the case.
Following a year where tenant evictions were banned except for in certain circumstances, there was always going to be a spike in repossessions as a backlog of cases finally started to be processed.
However, we’re yet to see the level of rental homes being repossessed return to pre-pandemic levels and there are also a lower proportion of initial claims making it to this final, last resort stage.
While delays due to the backlog of cases may certainly be one cause, it’s also fair to say that the nation’s landlords have largely acted with empathy and understanding following the pandemic, understanding the problems facing many tenants and looking to help them rather than turf them out on their ear.”
Landlords, good Landlords, not the slum-lord ones who tar the rest, do not get rid of good tenants without reason. If you pay your rent on time, look after the property and don’t cause problems with neighbours, then usually the only reason a Landlord would ask you to leave is either a change in their circumstances, or major work required that means the property can’t be occupied whilst it is being done. Any landlord and letting agent knows that you hold on to good tenants, the ones who treat the property like their home, look after the garden, do little bits of decorating (within approved colours obviously), report maintenance that they can’t sort themselves (I’ve had some that have tried to insist it is the landlord’s responsibility to change a lightbulb!) and know that it is a working relationship between the three sides.
I don’t want to evict people. I hate it, but there are some tenants that it gets to the point that you have to, constant rent arrears and late payments, continuous neighbour complaints, issues over repairs, the list goes on.
But I will fight tooth and nail on behalf of the good ones, the ones who got in touch as soon as they knew Covid was going to hit their finances, who paid as much as they could every month, and have over paid consistently to clear the unfortunately large arrears, the ones who take time to investigate a maintenance issue to give me some idea of what I’m dealing with before a contractor comes out so we can get it sorted quickly (there’s a leak in my bathroom, Ok, where from? Toilet, bath, sink? I don’t know, but there is a hole in the ceiling underneath the bathroom and there has been a water stain for a while… AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME WHEN THE STAIN FIRST APPEARED? Yeah, didn’t seem important. Anyway, I have friends coming over later, can you get it all sorted now? No. No, I can’t. I can try and get the leak stopped, but that’s about it until it all dries.)
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Repossessions are up after they were banned… and in other news the sky is blue!
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It may be a lower number than before covid because the courts are still not yet fully functioning.
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