The government has announced that possession cases with substantial rent
arrears will now be exempt from the evictions ban.
The move will see High Court Enforcement Officers and
bailiffs being able to complete evictions and enforce warrants.
The exemption will only apply to those cases, however, where there was the
equivalent of nine months of rent arrears that had been accrued before 23
March – which is when the country was put into national lockdown.
The Government’s decision has been criticised by the National Residential Landlords’ Association (NRLA) who say
that tenants can now build-up nearly 18 months of rent arrears without
facing any sanction.
The NRLA also points out that the government ‘has missed an opportunity’
for helping tenants who are in financial difficulties because of Covid-19
restrictions.
‘Government has failed to help tenants in genuine need’
The organisation’s chief executive, Ben Beadle, said: “The Government has
failed to help tenants in genuine need while trying to arrive at a
compromise – and rewarding those with arrears that have nothing to do the
pandemic.
“In some cases, they are not paying rent wilfully.”
He added: “This does nothing to help tenants trying to do the right thing
and pay off their debts.
“Instead, short-term fixes are prolonging the problem and the government
needs to bring in urgently a financial package that enables tenants to pay
off rent arrears.”
The managing director of accommodationforstudents.com,
Simon Thompson, said: “While exemption for serious arrears in possession
cases is to be welcomed, there is still the growing issue of tenants
struggling to pay rent that have been affected by the Covid-19 lockdown.
“The government needs to do something to help both tenants and landlords in
the short term and they need to do it quickly.”
