Landlord News Category

Unless the government throws another last-minute spanner in the works, from 20th September 2020, landlords can start serving eviction notices once again. From Monday 21st, the courts will reopen, and cases will once again be heard. There will be a significant backlog to get through before things revert to normal.

A change in law means landlords must give tenants six months’ notice when serving an eviction notice to tenants. The government says this will give tenants extra time to find somewhere else to live over the winter.

We don’t need our tenants to be on benefits this is available to all and the landlord will control the application – very good news.

A court ruling in July banned landlords in the private sector from discriminating against tenants on benefits. The case was brought by housing charity Shelter, after a single mother with two children was made homeless. No private landlord would let a property to her. The judge ruled that a blanket ban on so-called ‘DDS tenants’ was unlawful, but a recent BBC report found nothing much has changed. 

Evicting tenants is never easy. It can take up to eight months from serving a Section 21 notice to finally getting the keys back. Evictions are on hold until 24 August, but even when the courts reopen, there is likely to be a backlog of cases on the docket. To make matters worse, landlords face new restrictions when the restrictions come to an end.