Until now, in England and Wales, landlords have been entitled by law to claim their property back and therefore evict their tenants, without providing a reason. These unjustified evictions, with just two months’ notice, are so called Section 21 Evictions as per reference to the Section 21 of the Housing Act of 1988.
Last summer, several organisations (London Renters Union, Acorn, Generation Rent, Tenants Union and New Economics Foundation) jointly launched a significant advocacy campaign “End Unfair Evictions” with the support of other NGOs and city councils including a petition to the Housing Secretary to suppress Section 21 Evictions, which reached 50,000 signatures.
On 15th April, the British Government released its decision to call an end to Section 21 and announced the upcoming creation of open-ended tenancies. Landlords will still be entitled to evict their tenants to sell the property or to move back in.
The organisations behind this achievement will continue being active to ensure these announcements are followed by acts and properly implemented. They will also continue putting the government and landlords under pressure to avoid landlords using rent increases to push their tenants out.
