11 January 2011
Councils and housing associations are being given new powers to deal with problem tenants, housing minister Grant Shapps announced today.
An additional mandatory ground for eviction will make it easier and quicker for landlords to repossess the homes of antisocial tenants who have a track record of such behaviour. The courts process is also to be speeded up, so that being found guilty of housing-related antisocial behaviour in one court will provide automatic grounds for eviction in another court, removing the need to prove antisocial behaviour for a second time.
Shapps said: ‘For too long, too many social tenants have lived in fear of neighbours from hell, whose nasty and vicious behaviour blights their neighbourhoods. Victims and witnesses often have to continue living side by side with the perpetrators while action to evict them drags on for many months and sometimes years.
‘I want any tenant who comes forward to report antisocial behaviour in their area to get the support they need and deserve. And I want landlords to use the full range of powers at their disposal to tackle this menace head-on, so that the disruptive minority of social tenants don’t make everyone else’s lives a misery.’
Housing associations are also to be given the same freedoms as council landlords in being able to provide longer ‘probationary’ tenancies so they can be certain new tenants are treating their homes and neighbours respectfully.
The National Housing Federation said it was ‘broadly supportive’ of the move. A spokesman told Public Finance: ‘Anything that helps remove problem tenants and makes neighbourhoods pleasant places to live is something housing associations want to see and have been doing a lot of good work on.’
But the housing charity Shelter raised concerns. Kay Boycott, Shelter’s director of campaigns, policy and communications, said: ‘Removing courts’ discretionary powers and forcing them to evict people, despite possible extenuating circumstances, is a blunt tool to deal with a complicated problem.
‘Something as critical as whether someone might be made homeless is surely too important to be left to the discretion of a landlord who may not be wholly impartial.’
Considering evidence in antisocial behaviour cases should be left to the courts, she added, particularly in cases involving tenants with mental health problems, disabilities or where children were involved.
