In this Q&A with Founder of Landlord Action, Paul Shamplina, property writer and Editor of LandlordZONE, Nigel Lewis, asks Paul for his thoughts on where we are with the Section 21 ban, whether landlords should be worried about the changes, and what the future holds.
Read Paul’s thoughts below or watch the video.
“The banning of Section 21 evictions is going to go ahead despite claims to the contrary, and my prediction is that it will take two to three years to become law. That includes the time needed to make sure that any ban includes a stronger Section 8, including more mandatory grounds, but also bringing in mediation and even greater investment in the court system. Also, we need reform of the way bailiffs work and more judges to cope with the extra workload that banning Section 21 will inevitably bring. Landlords need to have confidence – you can’t bring in radical change without making sure they can evict tenants who stop paying the rent or who are behaving badly.”
“I tell landlords that they shouldn’t panic about these changes – landlords tend to be adaptable and have coped well with the growing amount of extra legislation and regulation in recent years. And remember that 90% of tenancies are ended by tenants and not landlords and, although many landlords have used Section 21 as a security blanket to evict tenants with rent arrears or when they want to sell a property – which makes up a quarter of all Section 21 activity, a Landlord Action survey revealed recently – I’m confident the Government will see sense and beef up Section 8 accordingly.”
“Right now, my team at Landlord Action is the busiest it’s ever been as they’ve dealt with the post-COVID backlog. Next year will be even busier as the cost of living crisis increases the level of rent arrears in the private rented sector, landlord mortgage rates increase and rising costs caused by inflation make more properties unprofitable.”
Read more on how Landlord Action can help with Section 21 and Section 8 notices.
