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Do Councils tell tenants
to wait for bailiffs before moving out?
ALEX Brent from National Landlords
Association (NLA)
has said that an alarming number of private tenants are being told by their
local Council to ignore eviction notices served by their landlords; and to
wait for bailiffs to turn up before moving out; in order to qualify for
re-housing support, according to new findings.
The findings have been published within the NLA Quarterly Tenants Research
Panel; Q4 2015, that had 950 respondents. The NLA who
work with 65,000 landlords said:- "49% of tenants who've been served
with a section 21 notice by their private landlord say they have been told
to ignore it by their local Council or an advice agency such as Shelter or
the Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB)."
If true, these figures shine a light on the scale of the issue, which was
recently highlighted by the UK's Telegraph newspaper and has been
exacerbated by the increasing use of private landlords, by local
authorities, to discharge their housing duties.
"The advice is increasingly being offered because Councils are refusing to
accept tenants' housing applications before an order for possession has been
granted by a Court, despite guidance from Central Government that confirms
all housing applications should be accepted from the time notice is served
on the tenant." says the NLA.
NLA Chairman Carolyn Uphill also commented:- "We've always known that
tenants receive this kind of advice and it's a huge problem because it
damages the confidence of landlords who work in the community to home those
who aren't able to access social housing. There is no justification for
prolonging the stress and uncertainty brought by a possession case. Advice
like this creates unnecessary strain on tenants, landlords, and the Courts
Service, which must first hear the case and order possession before Councils
are prepared to carry out their statutory duties. Nobody should ever be told
to wait until the bailiffs turn up; it makes an already unpleasant situation
much worse for everyone and creates a vicious cycle of misery and spiralling
costs for all involved."
Please let us know your views on this, via emailing us to:-
News24@southportReporter.com, as we would like to know if the
claims are correct!
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