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Tenants’ Protection Law: We Won

April 14th, 2010 by

We’ve have had some brilliant news about one of our recent campaigns: the tenants’ protection law was passed by Parliament last week in the ‘wash-up’, which is when bills are quickly passed before a general election. There was a real chance that the bill might not become law before the general election and it was touch and go getting it through in time.

We worked closely with a number of other organisations on this campaign, including Crisis, and our success is certainly a joint win! If you want to read more about the passage of the bill you can do so here

The law will ensure that those who rent are protected against eviction if their landlord is repossessed. Previously, the first some tenants may have known about being evicted because their landlord hadn’t kept up with mortgage payments would have been when baliffs turned up on their doorstep. You can read the full story here

Without you asking your MP to support and attend the second reading of the bill on 29th January this bill may not have been passed into law. This is an incredible achievement which will protect hundreds of thousands of tenants being thrown out of their home, whatever their landlord may have done.

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  • stevenjhumphrey

    Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! I spent several years fighting against this kind of abuse by bad landlords who evict tenants on a whim and for more rights for tenants here in Bournemouth (being a signatory of the Bournemouth Landlord and tenant accreditation scheme for example) and this is the first I hear of this kind of legislation!!!
    More evidence to suggest that people like me, who have a genuine concern for the rights and responsibilities of those in power are consistently ignored and given little or no input on new legislation or reform of current legislation and here's Gordon Brown, Cameron and clegg all talking of rebuilding trust in politics – what the hell have they been doing for the past forty years??

    Ignoring us and carrying on without our input!!!

    Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

    If I was involved in this legislative reform, I would've insisted that at the very least, a 'Court appointed for that purpose' would be the minimum requirement before ANY tenant is evicted and made it much more difficvult to evict tenants even for rent arears or other fault of the tenant!!

    It's not the point that tenants are irresponsible or 'bad' tenants, it's the point of preventing homelessness and how bad landlords play a huge role in creating homelessness today!!! The Housing Act should be amended to prevent homelessness not give ANY landlord the right to evict tenants for whatever reason but only to protect tenants and their rights under the law!!!

    Homelessness has got worse under this current Parliament and none of our elected MPs or Lords have done anything to prevent this scourge and primary concern of mine!!! I for one spent EIGHTEEN MONTHS homeless including a whole year living in a van I owned and what did my local authority do to prevent or alleviate this homelessness?? Our Housing Solutions Team ignored me and an officer of Dorset Police STOLE my van then lied under oath to protect his theft!!! Then when the case went to court the court upheld the theft as legal and defended the actions of the Police, stealing my van while I was travelling to a job interview!!! Then when I finally get over the offenses against me, ther IPCC say I left it too late to prosecute the Police Officers who lied and purjured themselves under oath!!!

    And now my own brother faces homelessness simply because he got a dog and the landlord doesnt like dogs!!! Now my friend Gary, who has lived in the same house for ten years is facing the same kind of abuse from his landlord!!! and Our Housing waiting list has doubled (assuming a number remain ignored and uncounted by Our Council) under a tory-led council!!!

    Homelessness sux and if there is one reason why you should not vote for any of the lib-lab-con artists it's that homelessness has not been fixed by any MP in that House of Traitors purporting to be Our Parliament!!! Same with Welfare Reform that doesnt reform in the best interests of jobseekers but makes it worse!!! 'When you put that together' (Vince Cable today, 14apr2010) we the people are worse off now than we have ever been, only most people dont know this truth!!!

    Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • http://www.myspace.com/azinko41dog a41dog

    since writing this, I have decided to push the idea of taking housing benefit as a deposit towards compulsorily purchasing social and private housing (like my flat here in Boscombe) so tenants on longterm benefits especially those on disability pensions can have the right to buy their private and social rented housing, specifically to prevent homelessness and the risk of bad landlords!

    I firmly believe that good tenants should be given the option to purchase (via a 'Green' low interest Equity Mortgage) their rented homes and guarantee that homelessness will be prevented NOT exacerbated by bad decisions by landlords…

    I am also convinced that the right to buy rented homes will also reduce Housing Benefit costs (because the mortgage can be paid off at a lower rate than paying the full market rent) simply because the costs of providing Green Mortgages for social tenants will be cheaper than renting at full market values as happens at the moment: if the free market is such a goldmine for social mobility, why cant social tenants benefit from that market and own a stake in their housing options eg buy their own home like council tenants can do??

    As it stands at the moment any landlord can simply deliver a Notice to Quit for any reason they like and then the tenant loses all rights to their home if a Court decides against the tenant; even the laws that govern social housing are unfair when it comes to eviction and should be legislated against in order to prevent the risk of homelessness; the situation is even worse if the local courts system is broken as it clearly is here in bournemouth!!!

  • http://www.myspace.com/azinko41dog a41dog

    since writing this, I have decided to push the idea of taking housing benefit as a deposit towards compulsorily purchasing social and private housing (like my flat here in Boscombe) so tenants on longterm benefits especially those on disability pensions can have the right to buy their private and social rented housing, specifically to prevent homelessness and the risk of bad landlords!

    I firmly believe that good tenants should be given the option to purchase (via a 'Green' low interest Equity Mortgage) their rented homes and guarantee that homelessness will be prevented NOT exacerbated by bad decisions by landlords…

    I am also convinced that the right to buy rented homes will also reduce Housing Benefit costs (because the mortgage can be paid off at a lower rate than paying the full market rent) simply because the costs of providing Green Mortgages for social tenants will be cheaper than renting at full market values as happens at the moment: if the free market is such a goldmine for social mobility, why cant social tenants benefit from that market and own a stake in their housing options eg buy their own home like council tenants can do??

    As it stands at the moment any landlord can simply deliver a Notice to Quit for any reason they like and then the tenant loses all rights to their home if a Court decides against the tenant; even the laws that govern social housing are unfair when it comes to eviction and should be legislated against in order to prevent the risk of homelessness; the situation is even worse if the local courts system is broken as it clearly is here in bournemouth!!!