A decade ago, left-wingers started using the phrase ‘zero hours contracts’ to refer to what had previously been known as casual labour or piece work. Once this pejorative term become widely used, Ed Miliband, then the leader of the Labour party, promised to ban them. Similarly, the phrase ‘no fault evictions’ was almost unknown to the general public until 2017 when pressure groups like Generation Rent and Shelter began using it and Jeremy Corbyn promised to ban them. The term had been used for years by landlords to distinguish the eviction of someone whose tenancy had expired (a Section 21 notice) from an ‘at fault’ eviction of someone who had broken the terms of their tenancy agreement (a Section 8 notice). The right of landlords to reclaim their property after an agreed period of time had never been controversial, but the words ‘no fault’ implied unfairness towards tenants who were, in the words of the Independent, ’kicked out of their home by a landlord for no reason’. By 2019, Theresa May had promised to ban them. She never got the chance, but Michael Gove yesterday confirmed that a ban on ‘no fault evictions’ was still at the top of the government’s agenda alongside a bunch of other dirigiste housing policies.
If the Tories spend their last few months in power fighting to ban Section 21 evictions it will be a fitting end to the least conservative Conservative government in history. It will strike a blow to property rights in much the same way as Sunak’s weird, creeping tobacco ban will strike a blow to personal liberty. The majority of the population will be unaffected by either of these policies, but they are symbolic of a party that has lost its principles, if it ever had any.
The law will ban property-owners from changing their minds about who they want living in their houses
It would be very strange if landlords are really evicting tenants ‘for no reason’, as the Independent puts it. Even in London’s overheated housing market, replacing a tenant costs money. It is possible that landlords are irrational actors who like replacing good tenants every 18 months just for the fun of it, but it seems more likely that they are using ‘no fault evictions’ to get rid of bad tenants without the legal hassle, time and expense of using a Section 8 notice. If so, banning ‘no fault evictions’ will create more work for lawyers by increasing the number of ‘at fault evictions’ and will make it more difficult for evicted tenants to find a new house since a Section 8 notice will affect their rental history. It could also lead to landlords becoming even more fussy about who they allow to rent their properties.
By using the rhetoric of ‘no fault evictions’, campaigners have given the impression that landlords are evicting tenants on a whim before their contract has expired. That would be illegal and it is not what is happening. Once the contract has expired, either party is free to walk away. That is how contract law is supposed to work and there is no reason to make an exception for rental properties. Landlords should be no more obliged to accommodate a tenant indefinitely than a tenant should be obliged to keep renting from them indefinitely. Under the Renters’ Reform Bill, the person living in the house will have more power than the person who owns it. Anyone who moves into someone else’s house and starts paying rent will have the right to live there for the rest of their lives so long as they keep paying rent and don’t smash the place up.
In effect, the law will ban property-owners from changing their minds about who they want living in their houses and how much they can charge them for living there. If the Conservatives still think they are the party of the free market then God help us if they ever develop an interest in socialism.
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