Ryan Heaven, solicitor at Dutton Gregory, has warned that the Government’s move to delay implementing a ban on Section 21 evictions is a thinly veiled U-turn.
Earlier this month, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove informed MPs that the Government would look to reform the court system before implementing its manifesto promise to protect renters with a ban on Section 21 evictions.
Speaking at a Webinar run by Goodlord, titled ‘Experts react: The Renters (Reform) Bill second reading’, Heaven said: “The idea is that the Government is going to delay the implementation of the ban on Section 21 until such time as the courts are up to speed.
“Michael Gove said that 95% of courts are meeting a certain standard. I think that standard is that the court has to have a hearing of a claim within eight weeks of the claim being issued.
“However, there’s absolutely no timeframes for what happens after that hearing, which is a five minute hearing, and if there’s any kind of defence, it’ll get adjourned.”
Heaven added that the Government perhaps wants to get to 100% of courts meeting this minimum standard before it implements the ban, but warned that there might also be “some other nebulous threshold.”
He added: “The point here is that it’s so vague as to effectively, indefinitely kick this into touch.
“There doesn’t seem to be, at least not yet, any – even arbitrary – marker which says ‘this is the point at which we consider the courts to be up to speed.
“Is this a delay or a U-turn? I think it’s essentially a U-turn, because they’ve kicked it so far into touch that this is effectively the next Government’s problem.
“They’re washing their hands of it.”
However, in response, Oli Sherlock, managing director – insurance at Goodlord, said: “It is a delay tactic, but I actually think it’s exactly what is required.
“The legal process when it comes to housing is fundamentally broken, archaic, slow, complex beyond the point it needs to be, and this is exactly the right call – if you are going to introduce the measures that have been deemed under the bill to be needed.”
