According to a recent report there has been a notable rise in the number of tenants being evicted from private landlord properties, and this is as a result of the landlords being unable to keep up with repayments on the mortgage on the property, thus resulting in repossession of the property.

The housing charity Shelter has warned that the number of tenants losing their homes through their landlords defaulting on mortgage repayments has been increasing, and in many cases the tenant is receiving just a few days notice advising them that they need to leave the property.

Shelter is now calling on the government to “act quickly to give tenants far, far longer”. Officials from the government have confirmed that they are looking at legislation, which could come in by April, which could enable tenants to receive around seven weeks’ notice of having to leave the property. The government is also said to be looking at reforms to provide tenants in this situation with increased protection. Across England and Wales there are around three million households that are renting from private landlords, and the rising level of landlord defaults could therefore have a huge impact in this sector.

Adam Sampson from Shelter stated: “What we’re seeing already is a steep rise in the number of tenants, entirely blameless individuals, who are becoming homeless because their landlords can’t pay their mortgage and their homes have been repossessed. What the government must do is to act quickly to give tenants in those circumstances far, far longer to find themselves somewhere else to live, in a housing market where housing is in desperate short supply.”

One man who was privately renting from a landlord said that he suddenly started to receive threatening letters for the owner of the property, who was in the United States and could not be contacted. He said: “When we contacted a debt-collecting agency who were writing to the owner – because we needed to know what was going on – a letter stated that no monies had been paid on the mortgage for four months before we had moved in. Eventually I was given about two weeks to leave the property just after Christmas. At the time, we still had to wait for our deposit to be returned and find a new deposit for our new property and I had to borrow off my mother. The most annoying part of it is that the letting agency were so scrupulous with us. We were credit-checked and had to provide proof of income for ourselves. They don’t do the same thing for the owner, whereas we are made to feel almost criminal.”

Another man who was privately renting also suffered problems after it was found that the landlord had not been paying the mortgage. He said: “It turned out that the landlord had purchased two properties on the street but never paid a penny on the loan, and then went back to Africa while myself and our neighbours paid the rent for six months. We also had numerous people calling over other debts this man had, and even had a tow-truck turn up trying to repossess our car. Repossession agents started knocking on the door. The owner obviously had financial problems and as soon as it started happening we started looking to buy a house. One letter from the mortgage company addressed to us said we might have to move out within two or three days.”

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