10,000 privately rented home tenants face eviction

Posted under News by Jermaine

Nearly 10,000 tenants staying in privately rented homes would be asked to vacate premises since their landlords would be in arrears over mortgage payments, warned Conservatives.

The Housing spokesman, Grant Shapps urged the Government to introduce new measures to protect tenants from sudden eviction. He suggested that tenants who have been regular in their payments to landlords should be allowed minimum one fortnight’s time to enable them find another accommodation.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has predicted 75,000 repossessions in 2009 due to economic downturn. Majority of those likely to lose their property will be small landlords who have defaulted on their buy-to-let deals.

Under existing regulations, authorized tenants get just 14 days from the date of repossession order by the court to vacate property. If the landlord had not taken permission for letting, tenant could be evicted within days. Many times tenants do not get notice in time regarding repossession and are taken by surprise when asked to leave.

Shapps has urged the Government to protect tenants from inconvenience by introducing 5 to 7 weeks’ notice period and allowing tenants to be heard by courts and lenders during repossession hearings.

Shapps informed that the Government was being called to take actions to protect families from suddenly finding “roof being taken away from above their heads.”

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