A clause to give tenants rent breaks is set to be incorporated into emergency coronavirus-related measures this week.
Labour has drafted the ‘coronavirus emergency rent relief’ in a new Land and Tenant (Temporary Provisions) Bill 2020 with help from housing lawyers. It will apply to where tenants have failed to pay rent between March 1 and September 1 because of coronavirus “in any way”.
The rent would not be treated as lawfully due, and no court proceedings in respect of arrears could be brought before December 1.
Meanwhile, the Scottish government is considering halting evictions of tenants during the coronavirus, while yesterday landlord bodies in England called for leniency to be shown to tenants.
Scottish housing minister Kevin Stewart said the treatment of tenants is under “urgent consideration” following a petition which asks for a freeze on “any and all” evictions in both the private and social rented sectors.
The petition also asks for renters affected by the virus to be given a rent holiday, and for rent collections to be suspended for those unable to work or who need to self-isolate.
Tenants’ union Living Rent said: “We want to see that this crisis does not make life harder for those that are already suffering under austerity, universal-credit reforms and skyrocketing rent.
“While bankers, landlords and mortgaged homeowners are being supported, the silence of the Government regarding tenants and their needs is shocking.”
However Stewart said: “No landlord should evict a tenant because they have suffered financial hardship due to coronavirus and we are actively considering how best this can be addressed.
“This is part of our urgent consideration on what wider measures can be put in place to support people against the economic impacts of coronavirus, and further announcements will be made.”
The petition yesterday had some 1,500 supporters.
In England, a similar petition by Acorn to Westminster had yesterday gathered some 10,000 signatures.
Meanwhile, in a joint statement the National Landlords Association and Residential Landlords Association urged landlords to provide support to tenants “throughout this difficult period”. They said that landlords should be as flexible as possible to help tenants facing payment difficulties.
The provision in England relating to tenants and arrears can be found here:
Comments (11)
@Roz – you missed a MASSIVE bit of this story off:
“No court proceedings for a money judgment in respect of any arrears within the meaning of clause 1 may be brought before 1 December 2021”
Read that sentence carefully…
Source: https://labour.org.uk/press/labour-demands-eviction-ban-for-renters-with-coronavirus/
I think we’d be able to challenge it in court as being ‘bad’! “ That failure to pay rent was, in any way, related to the effects of the coronavirus disease”
…so a work shy renter who decides to stop working because of CV would be protected…really?! I’m not sure their lawyers are that good tbh with that kind of drafting. Also why the long stop date of 1 Dec 2021? We dodged a massive bullet by not voting Labour in – heck, even renters didn’t vote for them lol. Such would have been the abuse of power that we would have definitely faced.
Surely if renters lose their jobs they will be entitled to unemployment benefits… If they are paid this, is Labour saying they still won’t need to pay us? All on the back of abolishing s21 evictions. We’ll then be stuck with such tenants as who will want to take on new tenants if they can’t pay their rent upfront if this becomes law?
And all this misery because of the vile and disgusting lifestyles of large parts of Chinese society. A society that has literally poisoned the world and doesn’t give damn about the suffering of animals, birds or anything. They eat bats for god’s sake! Let’s stop calling it the coronavirus and give it it’s real name – the chinavirus.
How are homeowners being supported?? I am facing my kids school being closed, with no childcare I cannot go to work. Is my company going to pay me to stay and work at home when it is really quiet so there isn’t going to be that much I can do, especially if they don’t give me a laptop.
Probably not. So how am I supposed to pay my bills?
Exactly this! Allowing those in rented to not pay rent for the duration whilst those of us that are homeowners and will also potentially be without pay for a number of weeks/months are left to fend for ourselves with mortgages and bills etc. Not sure that’s very fair! But as long as Generation Rent, Shelter et al are happy then that’s ok.
“While bankers, landlords and mortgaged homeowners are being supported….”
I now seen any support for Landlords, nor any intimations of support going to be made available.
The benefit system is there to help people who have fallen on bad times. Presumably, tenants will also need to buy food, pay bills, etc so benefits has to be the sensible way.
THIS IS JUST **** JOURNALISM WHY ISN’T SUCH STATEMENTS CHALLENGED INSTEAD OF JUST PRINTING VERBATIM THE TOTAL C**P SPOUTED BY THESE ORGANISATIONS.
If 14 days self isolation is the key …. why!!! Those that lose jobs need help.
I wonder how rent protection will work; will they pay out? In any event, I bet the premiums will now sky rocket!
What help are landlords getting? My mortgages and utility bill payments haven’t been frozen. Will the tax man freeze the collection of any tax due? Further, my profits pay for my own home/bills, feeding etc. etc. Can I walk into a shop and expect to walk out with food and not pay? I’m glad we all gave Labour a ****** nose in the last election!
Were a small agency with 200 plus rentals.. I wonder how many tenants will latch onto this if this goes through, I’d say pretty much all of them ! Wtf…
Bang goes my from scratch 20 year old business…
What a one-sided argument. This will lead to repossessions and more homelessness.
The best solution would be for banks to allow landlords with repayment mortgages to convert to interest only for the duration. Then they could extend the loan as appropriate at the end.
Unfortunately I won’t be holding my breath given the greed of bankers!