News
The eviction ban extension - How landlords should be coping
Friday 28th August 2020
Hamilton Fraser
This information is current and updated to the best of our knowledge as of Thursday 27 August.
The Government has now extended its temporary ban on evicting tenants by a further month until 20 September. The ban was due to be lifted on 23 August after first being put in place back in March to protect vulnerable tenants, (many of whom might be freshly unemployed), from being evicted from their homes in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On top of this, once the relevant legislation is passed (expected late August but could be early September) landlords will be required to give six months' notice to any tenants that they want to evict. This is a separate provision expected to be in place until at least March 2021.
This last-minute change is likely to cause further problems for landlords, and is even being deemed insufficient by organisations supporting tenants.
"An enormous amount of work has gone into finding a balance between supporting tenants who have been affected by the pandemic and preventing significant financial harm to landlords, in accordance with the Government's promise, this agreement satisfies no one."
- Ben Beadle, chief executive of the NRLA
However, it would appear there has been a stay of execution on that front as just recently, the Government resisted pressure from tenant groups to make the grounds for eviction under Section 21 and Section 8, Ground 8 discretionary rather than mandatory, which would have caused thousands of possession claims to be rejected and caused millions of pounds worth of heartbreak for the sector. It might only be a temporary respite but it's certainly a welcome one!