When Sarah Ladyman lost her job as a horticulturist earlier this year, her one-bedroom apartment became her refuge. However, her landlord sought to increase her rent from £775 to £900. She appealed to a rent tribunal, only to receive a no-fault eviction notice.
No-fault eviction notices – officially termed section 21 evictions – enable private landlords to evict tenants who have committed no infractions. Despite the tribunal ruling that the proposed rent hike on Ladyman’s home in Exeter was excessive – instead establishing it at £825 a month – she finds herself nearly powerless to stop the eviction process and resides with the persistent anxiety that her home of three years may be taken by bailiffs.
Ladyman, 52, is among over 30,000 individuals in England who have been issued a no-fault eviction notice since July of the previous year, coinciding with Labour’s election on a promise to prohibit them immediately. Nonetheless, the leading renters’ rights legislation is still making its way through parliament and will not be enacted in time to assist tenants like Ladyman.
“It was just such a shock,” she remarked. “I had just lost my job, and I thought, at least I still have my apartment, at least I still have my stability. I’ve never missed a rent payment. I just feel so targeted. Why would the landlord want to go through the courts to evict a good tenant over a mere £75?
“Even though I’m renting, it’s my home. My life revolves around it. I’m really active in the local community. However, I’ve had to step back from all social activities. You can’t focus on anything else.”
For Alice, a married mother of two who preferred to remain anonymous, the notice arrived after she highlighted several safety concerns at the family’s three-bedroom home in Leicestershire, which they rented for £900 a month. She remembered sitting on her bed preparing party favors for her five-year-old daughter’s birthday when the leg of the bed broke, leading to a hole in the floor. Alice, 33, suspects she may have been subject to a “revenge eviction” – when a landlord finds it more convenient to evict tenants than make necessary repairs.
“We absolutely adored the house,” Alice stated. “We did a lot of improvements to it. We turned the garden into a beautiful space, but we faced ongoing issues with significant repairs that needed addressing. Either they were neglected, or the landlord’s husband and his friend would come over and do a poor job.”
When Alice indicated her intention to contact her local council, she received a section 21 notice, plunging her into a state of “total panic.” After a frantic search, with the risk of temporary housing looming, she felt compelled to accept a more costly private rental due to her concerns about how homelessness would affect her children, especially her 12-year-old autistic son.
“Temporary accommodation would have torn us apart,” she mentioned. “But without support from my mum, we would have ended up there.”
Ryan Bramley and his partner, Sophie Hodgkiss, were given a no-fault eviction notice one week after they alerted their landlord about leaks in the guttering at their three-bedroom terrace home in Sheffield, for which they pay £900 a month.
“It was completely unexpected,” Ryan, a 31-year-old university lecturer, shared. “The week before receiving the section 21 notice, I contacted my landlord to report the guttering issue. It might just be a coincidence, but until that moment we had no reason to believe a section 21 was on its way.”
With assistance from the renters’ union Acorn, Ryan and Sophie, also 31, requested an extension, but their requests went unanswered. They now reside surrounded by boxes, bracing themselves for a likely eviction by bailiffs.
Ryan noted that the couple got the notice while Sophie was nearing the completion of her mental health nursing degree, adding to her stress. He explained that it aggravated his pre-existing mental health challenges as they consider options like sofa surfing or requesting the council to place them in temporary accommodations.
“I struggle with depression, anxiety, and OCD,” he shared. “I was managing these issues relatively well until recently. I’ve seen a decline in my mental health to the extent that I’m finding it hard mentally and emotionally. My partner has also been affected.”
“There have been a lot of tears. We’ve lived here for four years and have always paid our rent on time, but it no longer feels like our home. It’s not a place we look forward to returning to after a long day. We’re fortunate that friends and family have offered us a place to stay temporarily. While that’s kind, we don’t want to rely on that.”
Ryan believes successive governments have made empty promises to renters. A ban on no-fault evictions was first suggested by the Conservatives in 2019, but attempts to amend the law have stalled.
“There is a genuine conflict of interest here since many MPs and individuals in the House of Lords are landlords themselves,” he commented. “I’m not asserting this is the sole reason for the holdup, but there is that vested interest. I think that’s a part of why the progress has been slow.
“What Labour proposed was unrealistic from the start. You can’t simply state, ‘We’ll outlaw this on day one.’ There’s a procedure to follow. I feel that what has been promised to us by consecutive governments has been misleading.”
