Landlords, have you heard Section 21’s are to be abolished? What does this mean for you?

You probably know that the easiest way to end a tenancy is to serve a Section 21 notice once a tenant is out of...

You probably know that the easiest way to end a tenancy is to serve a Section 21 notice once a tenant is out of a fixed term tenancy, it gives the tenant 2 months notice to vacate your property.

More importantly it also allows the landlord to gain possession and can’t be contested by the tenant (if served correctly), so is the easiest and most effective way for a landlord to gain possession.

The government has announced plans to get rid of Section 21’s and supposed “no fault evictions” to give greater security to tenants. It’s announcement is “a wider package of reforms aimed at rebalancing the relationship between tenants and landlords”.

Many charities and campaign groups such as Shelter have campaigned for this for years since they believe these evictions are “unfair” and renters have the right “to feel secure in their home, settled in their community and able to plan for the future with confidence”.

So what do we think?

I’ve served many Section 21 notices in my years working in lettings and I have never, I repeat never, served a Section 21 for no reason to responsible tenants. Why would a landlord who has a good tenant, that is paying rent on time, looking after their property force them to leave?

They would suffer a void period whilst they look for new tenants (who may not be as good) and also have to foot new bills for setting up a new tenancy.

In my experience landlords only serve Section 21 notices for the following reasons:

1. They want to move back in

2. They want to sell the property

3. The tenant is either damaging the property or not paying their rent

Which will be allowed under the proposed changes to the law? So why change?

The main issues we believe with the proposed changes is the court system will not be able to cope with a flood of evictions under Section 8 rather Section 21.

Due to the fact that possession isn’t automatically granted this could cause long delays for landlords wanting to gain possession, increased legal costs and also due to the added complexities a greater risk that possession won’t be granted.

If you are a landlord and have concerns about this, don’t hesitate to get in touch. In Scotland this is already law, so it’s not all doom and gloom but hopefully just another thing to think about.