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March 21, 2014 | Landlord News
Housing charity Shelter have come under fire from the RLA after launching a campaign against ‘revenge evictions’, which, they claim in their joint study with British Gas, is a widespread problem in the private rented sector.
The study, published earlier this week, says that 200,000 tenants have faced eviction because they asked a landlord to fix a problem in their home. They say that 8% of tenants had avoided asking their landlord to fix a problem or improve conditions out of fear of a retaliatory eviction.
But the RLA says they have “ignored the inconvenient truths”. According to Shelter’s data only 2% of tenants have experienced the problems they warn of. Also, the 2% refers to tenants that have faced eviction, rather than actually being evicted.
According to the official figures published by the Ministry of Justice last month, less than 40,000 tenants (in both private and public housing) had their homes repossessed in 2013. This combined figure equates to 0.5% of all rented homes in England.
The research also fails to indicate how many evictions were due to non-payment of rent, tenancies ending, or as a result of anti-social behaviour.