It was announced in the press last month (to the surprise of the industry) that the government plan to abolish section 21 notices; they call them ‘no fault evictions. To you and I, this is the notice that we send to a tenant to vacate the property. The government seems to think that tenants are ‘hard done by’ and want to stay longer in properties, however the landlords (you) want them out hassle free when the situation calls.
We all know this is not the case unless the tenant has done something particularly wrong like not paying the rent on time, subletting illegally or damaging the property. The government’s solution to the problem has not yet been prescribed. There is talk of a new housing court and amendments to section 8 notices, which is currently used for non-payment of rent or breaches of the tenancy agreement. Whatever they decide, we will not know for the foreseeable, so we advise continuing business as usual until we seek clarity on the position. What we do know is that the buy-to-let market in the UK is staying strong and the government will not want to risk capsizing it anytime in the future.
