As previously mentioned on this blog, tenants often get a raw deal when, unbeknown to them, their landlord has defaulted on his mortgage, putting them at risk of eviction. Tenants can be evicted with only a few days (or even less) notice, even if they are completely up to date with their rent.
Ministers have previously promised to deal with this, and there was widespread criticism when the government failed to include anything in the recent Queens speech. Lucky for tenants then, that labour MP Brian Iddon, MP for Bolton South East, who came first in last week’s ballot to bring in private members’ bills, has decided to help. As reported here, he has announced that he intends to introduce a bill providing for tenants to get at least two months’ notice if their home is repossessed by their landlord’s lender.
“I wanted to take forward The Protection of Private Tenants (Mortgage Repossession) Bill because I believe in protecting people who may lose their home through no fault of their own.
Given the limited time available in this truncated parliamentary session, I am keen to bring in a Bill that is relatively simple and that will command widespread support in the House.”
The move has been welcomed by tenants’ charities such as Shelter and the Citizens Advice Bureau, and Minister John Healey has also promised his support. However with a general election looming next year, I’m not sure whether, practically, there is enough time for it to reach the statute book. If any readers have specialised knowledge about this please comment.
In the meantime, I would draw prospective tenants attention to this post here on how to protect yourself against rogue landlords.
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It depends on the government I think, Tessa: there’ll be time if they allow the time. This sounds a bit like a “handout” Bbill, to be honest. The government has a stack of small ideas it’d like to legislate for in an ideal world, but can’t prioritise in government “time”. If they can find an MP who’d like to take one forward as a private member’s bill, they’ll sometimes allow some time for that. Since the minister has offered support, and this Labour MP landed on the idea within a few days (without it apparently being a big campaign of his previously) I suspect that’s what happening here. In which case, this has a lot more chance of getting through than the other private members bills. Especially if there’s no opposition, I think it could make it.
Thanks for your expert opinion Carl. Thats good news for tenants then. We will have to keep our fingers crossed and see what happens.