When Nicola Jalland, 62, was served with a section 21 no-fault eviction in March 2022 – which means a landlord can oust a tenant for no reason – she was upset to leave the property she had lived in for 11 years. She had made the home a sanctuary, with a garden full of flowers.
But when Jalland got her second no-fault eviction in two years in November 2023, she was angry. “It was an incredible feeling of imbalance of power,” she says. “The second time it happened, I literally felt worthless.”
Jalland says she was forced to move in with her 82-year-old mother after the second eviction while waiting for a council property, saying she slept on cushions on the floor.
“I was nothing to them [her landlords], I was monetary value,” she says.
The government has vowed to abolish no-fault evictions in England, and its renters’ rights bill goes before the House of Commons on Tuesday for its report stage and third reading, with MPs due to debate an amendment on rent controls.
More than 108,000 households have been served with no-fault evictions since the then prime minister, Theresa May, promised to ban the practice in 2019, according to the homelessness charity Crisis. Labour’s bill would ban no-fault evictions and add new grounds for reclaiming a property if the owner must sell up or move in; scrap estate agent bidding wars; cap rent rises to once a year; set new rules on dealing with mould and damp; and create a database of landlords, among other changes.
Tenant campaign groups have welcomed government plans to abolish no-fault evictions, although several urge the government to go further with rent controls. For landlords, many are unhappy with the changes and say they will be forced to increase rents. The Guardian asked tenants and landlords to share their views on the bill and its potential impact.
Jalland welcomes the proposals but regrets that they have come too late for her. But she worries landlords may still use the selling-up or moving-in clause as a proxy to evict tenants.
The Renters’ Reform Coalition, a collection of 20 organisations representing private renters, is concerned the bill may enable a “no-fault evictions loophole” whereby landlords can simply raise rents to unaffordable rates to get tenants out.
That is what happened to Simon, 31, a charity worker based in Oxford. While renewing the contract for the place he shared with a friend, they were quoted a rent rise of £165 a month on top of the £1,425 they were paying. That was unaffordable for Simon and he was forced to move out.
“There was definitely a point when I was looking at it and thinking: ‘What am I going to do, am I going to be homeless?’” he says. “It was absolutely horrific.”
He was luckily able to turn to family support to find a new place. But he fears that under Labour’s proposals to abolish section 21, renters can simply be evicted by other means, such as unaffordable rent hikes. “Rent controls and rent stabilisation are very good ideas,” he says.
Union leaders and renters’ groups have urged the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, to help undo “years of damage to the housing sector” by, among other things, devolving powers to metro mayors so they could introduce rent caps. On Tuesday MPs will debate an amendment that would cap rents within tenancies, supported by several Labour MPs and the Renters’ Reform Coalition.
On the other side of the debate, some landlords say they are unhappy with the abolition of no-fault evictions, which they say will increase risk for landlords and cause housing providers to exit the market.
“It seems to have been forgotten: they are our properties, we own them, they are our assets, and unfortunately the government seems to be trying to turn us into social landlords,” says Steven (not his real name), a landlord with two rental properties in Manchester. “If we don’t believe we can retain possession of our properties, we will evict and we will sell.”
Steven says the remaining processes for evicting tenants – for things such as antisocial behaviour – under section 8 are not reliable enough, because landlords must prove grounds for repossession to a judge, risking their income during the legal process.
Steven says he sympathises with renters because, with landlords threatening to exit the market, there could be fewer homes available to rent. “I do feel for them, but at the end of the day, I’m here to look after myself and my family,” he says. Steven is weighing up selling his properties.
The National Residential Landlords Association, which represents more than 100,000 landlords, says Labour’s bill could cause landlords to leave the market and argues that the government “must not worsen an already chronic shortage of homes in the sector”.
Yet not all landlords are unhappy with the bill. Ian Mann, a retired 70-year-old in Burton-on-Trent, who owns one rental property but spent much of his life renting, welcomes it.
“We understand what it’s like being a renter, so we always said from day one, if we rent a house out, we won’t treat people the way we were treated,” Mann says. “It’s inhuman how they’re treated sometimes.” He feels that section 21 evictions are “wrong” and is happy they are being banned.
“It’s time for everyone to be respectful of each other,” Mann adds, and says he always tries to make repairs as soon as possible.
“It’s our house, but it’s their home.”
