There has been a 38% increase in issues caused by people without rent arrears being threatened with eviction from a private sector rented home, the Citizens Advice has said.
If they are evicted, tenants have no choice but to find hundreds of pounds for a deposit and advance rent plus an average of £350 in letting fees, sometimes just a few months after paying out for the original property.
According to the charity, tenants report being evicted for a number of different reasons, including:
- the landlord wants to sell their home,
- rents are hiked to unaffordable levels, or
- they have asked their landlord to carry out repairs.
Some people are being given notice when they inform their landlord that their circumstances have changed and they have moved on to housing benefit, even if they have not fallen behind with their rent.
As well as issues caused by rising prices, private sector tenants are experiencing problems caused by landlords unfairly keeping hold of deposits, refusing to carry out repairs or harassing their tenants.
“Tenants are being treated as cash cows as a chronic housing shortage pushes up prices and forces renters out of their homes,” commented Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice. “Competition for properties means that tenants are easy to replace, increasing insecurity for people trying to create a home in the private rented sector.”
“We desperately need more new homes to tackle Britain’s woefully inadequate housing supply,” she added. “Until this happens, we’ll continue seeing evictions rocket as tenants are left at the mercy of rising rents and insecure tenancies.”
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