Banning Section 21 evictions will only improve renters’ rights if forthcoming legislation prevents ‘backdoor’ no-fault evictions from taking place

Citizens Advice warns that new eviction grounds in Renters Reform Bill, along with excessive rent increases, could be used by landlords to unfairly force tenants out of their homes once no-fault evictions are banned

Banning Section 21 evictions will only improve renters’ rights if forthcoming legislation prevents 'backdoor' no-fault evictions from taking place, Citizens Advice has warned.

While the long-awaited Renters Reform Bill and its headline commitment to abolish Section 21 no-fault evictions is welcomed as 'a vital reform that could level the playing field in the private rented sector’, Citizens Advice also warns of three critical loopholes that could undermine the Bill’s aims –

  • new no-fault grounds that allow landlords to evict tenants if they want to sell the property or move family in, without requiring them to provide any evidence;
  • landlords being able to evict tenants using these new no-fault grounds after just six months of a tenancy; and
  • landlords imposing unreasonable in-tenancy rent increases could still force tenants to move out.

Drawing on findings from a survey of 2,000 private renters in England, fieldwork conducted in April 2023 and data from the English Housing Survey, Citizens Advice highlights in An end to unfair evictions? that –

  • 48 per cent of people who had experienced an eviction were told that their landlord was selling the property – a proportion that it says will only expand if the government does not close this loophole;
  • 66 per cent of evicted renters were forced to move between six months and five years into their tenancy – suggesting that the limit on using new no-fault grounds in the first six months of the tenancy will, in practice, leave the majority of tenants unprotected; and
  • 1.8 million households had their rent increased or were threatened with an increase last year. and more than 300,000 private renters had to move out of their home due to a real or threatened rent increase

As a result of these findings and the flaws identified in the Bill as it stands, Citizens Advice calls for the government to make key changes as the Bill progresses through Parliament –

  • if a landlord uses the new no-fault grounds, the period in which they cannot re-let their properties should be extended from three months to one year;
  • take steps to reconsider the evidence landlords should be required to provide when using new no-fault grounds;
  • increase the period in which tenants are protected from new grounds for eviction from six months to two years; and
  • prevent tribunals from raising the rent beyond the amount being challenged in order to give tenants confidence in challenging unreasonable rent increases.

Acting Executive Director of Policy and Advocacy at of Citizens Advice Matthew Upton said today –

'Our advisers are increasingly hearing from renters who are being forced to uproot their entire lives after receiving a Section 21 notice.

For too long, renters have lived in precarious situations with few protections while landlords have held all the cards.

Reforms to the private rental sector are welcome but they’re open to abuse from unscrupulous landlords. The government must ensure reforms are watertight and not include loopholes which allow Section 21 evictions to continue by the backdoor.'

For mor information, see Flaws in Renters Reform Bill risk ‘no fault’ evictions continuing via backdoor, says Citizens Advice.