Nearly one million renters in UK served eviction notices for 'no reason'

Forced home moves have cost renters over half a billion pounds a year. There were 830,000 unwanted moves in England over the past 12 months, meaning 40 per cent have been forced to relocate, amid the ongoing Cost of Living crisis.

It means almost one renters were served eviction notices for no reason since the government vowed to ban the shady practice. Analysis by the homelessness charity Shelter estimated renters collectively spend £550m a year on moving costs.

Natalie, 47, has moved 12 times in the past 21 years, and has been served with two no-fault evictions in the past 18 months. “I haven’t even unpacked properly,” she said. “I’m worried that as soon as I do, I’m going to have to move again.

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“I’ve downsized to a studio. Most of my stuff is stored in a garage nearby that I’m renting for £75 and I had to shell out £750 on removal van hire alone. It took me 18 months just to pay back all the debts accrued from the last move, and then it happened all over again.

“There is nothing worse than being forced to move home. “Without a stable foundation, how can you lead a fruitful life?” Shelter policy manager Tarun Bhakta said: “This is money that renters will never see again. It’s not a deposit that you may or may not get back at the end of your tenancy, it’s not money for your rental, it’s simply costs down the drain.

"Money for a removal van, for packing boxes, for new furniture; these are avoidable expenses that tenants are having to make against their will. Because of an abnormally and unreasonably unstable rental system, tenants are having to cough up millions and millions of pounds each year in moves that could otherwise be avoided, if the government had a backbone and delivered a strong, watertight renters’ reform bill.”

Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, said: “Tenants are coughing up millions in unwanted and unwarranted moves, while the government runs scared of a minority of its own MPs. Instead of striking dodgy deals with backbenchers to strangle the renters’ reform bill, ministers should defend renters’ best hope of a stable home.

“With protections from eviction so weak and rents so high, we constantly hear from people forced out of their homes and communities at huge personal cost. It’s impossible for renters to put down roots knowing a no-fault eviction could plunge them back into chaos at any moment.”

A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: “The renters (reform) bill will deliver the manifesto commitment to abolish section 21 evictions. It will be returning to the House of Commons shortly.”