Welcome to our Newsround, let’s see what has been happening in the housing news this week as we end the month of June.

Illegal evictions to become even more expensive for landlords

Councils to be given more enforcement powers under the Renters Reform Bill to be able fine landlords up to £30,000 as an alternative to prosecution.

Lawyer Sam Kharabanda of Cornerstone Barristers says

It appears that these penalties could be imposed in addition to any rent repayment order secured by a tenant in respect of unlawful eviction, meaning that a landlord who has committed an offence could be on the hook for two fines, one punitive and one compensatory, as long as criminal proceedings have not been pursued.

Councils must be satisfied that an offence has been committed and that there is also no criminal proceedings ongoing. Tenants can persue a claim for damages against rogue landlords via the civil courts at the same time as a criminal prosecution in the magistrates court.

Safer Renting say that illegal evictions and harassment are increasing, their figures show that there were more than 8000 illegal evictions or harassments in 2022, which is up almost 7,800 from 2021.

This may be a result of the massive delays in getting an eviction claim through the courts.  Where huge arrears are being run up by tenants with landlords on the hook for increased mortgage and other costs, they (the landlords) may well resort to desperate measures.  This is the problem where the court system is failing people – what else (they may think) can they do?

Councils may struggle with to enforce new evictions laws under Renters Reform Bill

Housing spokesman, Darren Rodwell has told the BBC that councils could struggle to enforce the new eviction laws under the Renters Reform Bill because they will not have enough trained staff or funding. He says

There were “still some unknowns” about how councils would fund enforcement “with the limited resources we have currently”.

If we’re about to bring in a whole raft of new responsibilities for local authorities, we need to bring in more staffing to support that and also a sustainable model for funding of new staff

The government has previously stated that they will fully fund any costs for councils after Section 21 goes. But The Chartered Institute of Environment advised more funding is needed to ensure that that new legislation is effective.

The Department for Housing, Levelling Up and Communities states

We will continue to support councils financially so they have the right resources to put tenants first, that includes fully funding any additional costs that may fall on councils as a result of our proposed reforms.

Housing policies need re-thinking

A Welsh Labour MP, has criticised the government’s housing policies and told them to ‘re- think’ them otherwise, there will be a housing crisis. He says that the freezing of the housing benefit cap has now made it totally unrealistic, coupled with the continual changes to the taxation rules for buy-to-let properties means that we may well lose the private rented sector completely.

He says

Some [private] landlords are now so nervous…that they now often insist on substantial deposits beforehand, We have heard of landlords demanding 12 months’ rent in advance. There is no way most ordinary people could possibly afford that.

Within the social housing sector there are as many as 250 applicants per property, he says

There is no way on God’s earth that the authority, try as it might, and as inventive as it tries to be, can meet the housing need.

Rachel Mclean, the Housing Minister, replied:

We have delivered our £11.5 billion affordable homes programme in England, and I encourage the Welsh Government to follow in our footsteps.

Would be landlords need to be fully informed

Kate Faulkner OBE of the Home Buying Selling Group has called for landlords to be fully informed and understand exactly what they are getting into when entering the buy-to-let sector to make sure that they can weather the hard times as well as the good and that they can maintain their businesses when the financial going gets though.

She says

If there is one thing we should take out of this, when people are getting into buy-to-let we really need to make sure that they understand that it’s a 10, 15, 20 year commitment. We have to almost become financial advisers because it is their pension. People who aren’t doing well and are selling up are losing their pension and that’s not a good thing.

I would like to see the financial adviser and property industry come together to give people the right advice.

She further adds that the PRS has been decimated and says that there is a serious problem with landlords leaving the market who are ‘highly leveraged’. In the last week, some 450,000 properties are now in trouble due to mortgage rates. Going on to say

If this has taught us one thing, we just need to be a little bit more careful who we let into the sector to make sure that they can stay in it.

Is the Renter’s Reform Bill at risk?

Finally, there are now rumours that the Renters Reform Bill is at risk as it is being claimed that Sunak is unwilling to take on members of his own party who oppose it.

If this is the case, then landlords will no doubt be facing more tenant-friendly legislation from the Labour Party if they win the coming election.

Still, at least they won’t be facing rent controls.

Snippets

Demand for rental properties dips as renters ‘sit tight’
Landlords – can you continue to let your buildings?
Labour plan to seize unsafe or poor homes from rogue landlords
New fire regulations ‘hot’ off the press, and the importance of inspections
Rogue tenants should be named and shamed on a national register, says lawyer
New call for clampdown on Airbnb landlords

Newsround will be back next week.

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