Meeting of the Parliament 04 October 2022
I am going to have to move on, I am afraid. I have taken a number of interventions.
As a result of changes that Parliament approved back in June, any eviction for rent arrears already has to take into account all the circumstances of both landlord and tenant that are judged to be reasonable by the tribunal or court, and it must be demonstrated that steps have been taken to help tenants to manage or reduce arrears.
The bill includes a provision to ensure that the restriction on the enforcement of an eviction order applies only for a maximum of six months from when the order was issued. That applies to individual cases and is separate from the consideration of whether the moratorium on evictions is extended beyond 31 March.
The restrictions will apply to all eviction orders granted in proceedings raised after the moratorium comes into force and will also apply to proceedings raised before the bill comes into force where the eviction notice was served after 6 September. It will not apply to eviction orders granted in proceedings raised before 6 September. Our aim here is to ensure that no one is evicted in a case started after, or in response to, the announcement of our intention to introduce an emergency rent freeze.
We know that many private landlords are professional and supported their tenants during the pandemic, but we cannot ignore the fact that a small minority will try to circumvent the new protections, including by trying to unfairly bring existing tenancies to an end. That is an affront both to tenants and to those landlords who follow the rules.
That is why the bill makes some vitally important changes to the way in which civil damages can be awarded for unlawful eviction, making it more attractive for tenants to challenge an unlawful eviction and receive appropriate damages where one has occurred. The provisions introduced in the bill replace the basis for the assessment of damages that the tribunal or court can award to a minimum of three times and a maximum of 36 times the monthly rent, though there will be discretion to award a lower amount if that is appropriate. In addition, the legislation will create reporting requirements where a landlord has been found to have unlawfully evicted a tenant. That will act as a strong disincentive to those unethical landlords who would seek to avoid going through the proper legal process.
The part of the bill that deals with rent adjudication looks ahead to a time when, we hope, we will be entering recovery from the cost crisis and are therefore intending to support transition out of the emergency measures. A big concern is that the lifting of the restrictions could lead to a large number of landlords seeking to increase their rent all at once. Returning to open market rent could result in significant and unmanageable rent increases for tenants and a volatile market. In those circumstances, the existing rent adjudication process would not provide an effective mechanism for determining a reasonable rent increase. The bill therefore contains a regulation-making power to temporarily reform the rent adjudication process to support transition out of the emergency measures and mitigate any unintended consequences from the ending of the cap.