I was browsing the Twitter-sphere last night and came across a right old "rumpus" about a guy being threatened with eviction from his rental property in Bow, East London. His crime? Well he was the person who exposed the Ministry of Defence's plans to site surface to air missiles on the roof of residential premises near the Olympic Park.
Forget for a moment the over the top nature of such a daft idea. Is it not something of a "coincidence" that here we have a tenant, threatened with eviction, for exercising his right in a free country to question a decision he has serious concerns about.
Question "authority" lose your home:- think about this just for a moment!
This is not some "tinpot banana republic" this is the United Kingdom in the early 21st century! How is this possible? Well it is all down to our easy to evict Housing Laws!
The Housing Act 1988 offers no form of proper security of tenure. Tenants can be asked to leave their homes after 6 months, no reason needed. This leads to a lack of stability at a time when rented accommodation (especially in the Capital City) is at a premium and renting is now becoming the "norm". The above example is extreme and, at the time of writing, there are signs that the landlord and letting agent concerned may well be having "second thoughts". That being said every single day tenants' stability is routinely threatened by summary eviction for simple things as asking a landlord to carry out legally required repairs. As we move into the final weeks before the Olympic games there are even some reports on Twitter of landlords demanding that tenants vacate within 3 weeks!
Despite the appalling like of security of tenure tenants do have some rights. Firstly a tenant with an Assured Shorthold Tenancy CANNOT be asked to leave in 3 weeks if there is no breach of the agreement on the tenant's part. Pursuant to Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 a Landlord must first serve written notice seeking possession. The period of this notice is a minimum of TWO MONTHS. A landlord may never simply "evict" a protected tenant. A court order is ALWAYS needed and even then a Bailiffs' Warrant of Possession must be obtained.
Any landlord breaching these strict rules faces tough civil penalties and will almost certainly be committing a criminal offence.
So whilst life in the private rented sector is indeed tough the landlords don't always have it their own way. Learn your rights and fight back!
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