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Landlords are reluctant to evict their tenants
By Simon Thompson |
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Despite media coverage pointing to increasing numbers of tenant evictions, a major survey reveals that landlords are reluctant to evict tenants in most circumstances.
Landlords say that when they do evict it is for serious issues such as anti-social behaviour or major rent arrears.
The survey was undertaken by the Residential Landlords' Association in a bid to counter claims that landlords are increasingly evicting tenants who ask for repairs to their property.
Landlords distance themselves from ‘retaliatory evictions’
These evictions are called retaliatory evictions and one MP is planning on raising a private Member's Bill to outlaw them.
However, the survey from the RLA paints a different picture with more than 1,700 landlords responding with information.
The survey reveals that 56% of landlords have evicted tenants from properties and, of those, nearly 90% said they had done so for serious rent arrears.
More than half of landlords have evicted tenants
Another 43% of landlords evicted a tenant for anti-social behaviour, nearly 40% carried out an eviction for damage to the property while 20% of landlords evicted a tenant for drug related activities.
Around 30% of landlords have evicted a tenant so they can take possession of the property for a variety of reasons including a need to sell it.
The survey underlines the fact that most landlords evict tenants only when they really have to.
Claims of widespread retaliatory evictions have no evidence
Alan Ward, RLA chairman, said the survey was carried out because there was very little evidence to back up claims of widespread retaliatory evictions being carried out by landlords.
He added: “We have been concerned about these retaliatory eviction claims when there has been little hard evidence to back them up.
“Now landlords are threatened with regulations which would make it harder to evict bad tenants should they need to.”
Most of the landlords responding to the RLA survey also called for a more balanced debate on the issue saying that eviction was only a last resort and the vast majority rejected claims that a would-be evicted if they asked for property repairs.
Landlords at risk from fraudsters
Meanwhile, the National Landlords' Association is once again highlighting the risk to landlords from potential fraudsters.
The NLA says a new wave of complaints has been triggered over fraudsters using websites to trick potential tenants into paying fees to rent a property that the fraudster does not own.
The fraudsters are even using fake NLA letters to help lure their victims into believing that the property is for rent.
The NLA says that these letters are often poorly written and come from the 'landlord' rather than from a named person.
The association is now working with the National Crime Agency and the National Union of Students in a bid to clamp down on the growing fraud.
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