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Lords debate today on bid to outlaw revenge evictions
Today sees the long-awaited debate in the House of Lords on an amendment to the Deregulation Bill – effectively a device to introduce measures to try to ban what some call retaliatory or revenge evictions.
Liberal Democrat peers Baroness Cathy Bakewell, Baronet Rosalind Grender, Baron Ben Stoneham and Lord Tope have tabled the amendment, which effectively repackages a proposal debated in the Commons last November.
The Commons private members’ bill on the subject, tabled by Liberal Democrat back-bencher Sarah Teather, was defeated but the process leading to its defeat was procedural, with two Conservative MPs – also reported to be landlords – ‘talking out’ the bill, a filibustering process which means it could make no progress in that form.
However, the debate before the procedure was invoked saw substantial backing for the bill from all sides of the Commons, including from the government.
Now the proposal is back in a different form. If it is passed by the Lords it it likely to become law and it would mean that landlords would be prevented from evicting a tenant for no reason within six months of receiving an improvement or hazard awareness notice.
When a complaint alleging a revenge eviction was received – obviously applying to a private rented property – the local authority for the area would contact the landlord to resolve the problem, only serving a statutory notice if the landlord is clearly at fault and there is a serious issue with the property.
