Councils advising tenants to refuse to move out following an eviction notice are costing landlords nearly £7,000 in fees, the National Landlords Association (NLA) has found.
The NLA survey revealed that 47 per cent of tenants who have been served a section 21 eviction notice 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), in order to qualify for rehousing.
This advice is predicted to cost the landlord, on average, £6,763.
The NLA are due to present the results this month to the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Select Committee on the Homelessness Reduction Bill.
The Bill, introduced by Conservative MP Bob Blackman, will amend the Housing Act 1996 to expand councils’ duties to prevent homelessness by recognising a section 21 eviction notice as proof that an applicant is threatened with homelessness, and doubling the definition of threatened with homelessness from 28 to 56 days.
Richard Lambert, Chief Executive Officer at the NLA, said: “We have consistently campaigned on this issue, but despite many warnings to councils and agencies, this damaging advice is still being given out to tenants.
“Possession cases can take a very long time to resolve, and aside from putting an unnecessary strain on everyone involved, not to mention the Courts, these findings demonstrate just how costly the advice can be.
“Bad, or incorrect, advice hinders rather than helps landlords and tenants who are often already in a desperate situation. It will inevitably damage landlords’ confidence in the local authority and tenants may be put at much greater risk of having nowhere to live.
“We hope that this Bill will achieve its aims of reducing homelessness by giving tenants the support they need while incentivising the good work that landlords already do in communities across the country.”