The government has pledged that section 21 repossessions will not be scrapped until improvements have been made to the way courts handle legitimate possession cases. At present it takes an average of over half a year for the courts to process possession claims where landlords have good cause, such as tenant rent arrears or anti-social behaviour. Responding to a report from the House of Commons Housing Select Committee ahead of MPs debating the Renters Reform Bill on Monday, the government has confirmed that implementation of the new system for repossessing properties “will not take place until we judge sufficient progress has been made to improve the courts. That means we will not proceed with the abolition of section 21, until reforms to the justice system are in place.”
Alongside this, the government has agreed to establish a new ground to repossess properties to protect the yearly nature of the student housing market. The government has said it will “introduce a ground for possession that will facilitate the yearly cycle of short-term student tenancies” which “will enable new students to sign up to a property in advance, safe in the knowledge they will have somewhere to live the next year.”
Cardwells Estate Agents Managing Director, Andrew Cardwell says;
“Ensuring that court processes and systems are adequate before making changes to the law is sensible governance, as the consequences of rushing a bill through that the courts are unable to deal with, would undoubtedly create chaos for both landlords and tenants in the Private Rental Sector. The amendments proposed, particularly for Student Let Landlords are sensible, and in many ways this is why policies go through a period of consultation and evaluation before being rubber stamped. In the meantime if you are an existing landlord, or tenant you will still be able to end a tenancy at the end of a lease period, using the normal Section 21 notice. No doubt it is only a matter of time before the reform to the private rented sector comes along, it could perhaps be during the next parliament now, but hopefully when it does the courts will be prepared. Though it must be remembered that even when / if the abolition of Section 21 notices comes, landlords will still have many reasons to get possession of their property back, and of course, in my experience it is far more common for tenants to choose to end a lease than landlords anyway.”
