Landlords waiting more than five months to regain their property.

judges gavel insurance

 

Recent figures from the Ministry of Justice show that private landlords are having to wait an average of over five months to regain possession of a property when applying to the courts. While it can be costly to evict a tenant, it should always be a last resort. It can be costly in time, money and effort.

The Residential Landlord Association is warning that the Government’s move to develop longer tenancies will fail without urgent court reforms to ensure landlord can quickly regain possession of a property in cases where a tenant is failing to pay rent or causing damage to the property.

David Smith, Policy Director for the RLA, said: “These figures show that the court system is failing to secure justice for landlords and tenants when things go wrong.”

“If Ministers want to roll out longer tenancies landlords need the confidence that in cases where they legitimately want to repossess a property the system will respond swiftly. It is not good for either tenants or landlords to be left in a prolonged period of legal limbo.”

“We hope that the government will press ahead with a properly funded and fully fledged Housing Court.”

The RLA is calling for a properly funded housing court to speed up access to justice, not just landlords but for tenants as well. The Government is currently consulting on speeding up justice within the private rented sector.

Leave a Reply