Renter shares trauma of no-fault eviction – ‘it almost killed me’
Adrian Fletcher, 55, was hit with a Section 21 eviction after complaining about serious damp, mould and water coming into his Worthing home, an experience he says nearly killed him
Adrian Fletcher struggled after being hit with a no-fault eviction(Image: Adrian Fletcher)
A renter who was hit with a Section 21 eviction has said the experience “nearly killed him” and led to fears it could happen again to him.
Adrian Fletcher, 55, was hit with a no-fault eviction after complaining about serious damp, mould and water coming into his home.
Long-term unemployed due to health issues, Mr Fletcher, who lives in Worthing, explained he had serious problems in his new home, but had been forced into it with no other options.
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Discussing his new home, he said: “There’s no insulation in the walls at all, in my lounge I’ve got rising damp in my main bedroom, as you move to the end of my flight into the kitchen and the bathroom area, there’s black mould. It’s not really bad, but it’s there. It’s a nightmare. Having been through the Section 21, it nearly killed me, and that’s not an exaggeration. After it was all done and dusted and I’d moved in here, I had a breakdown. It was really quite serious. I have suffered through bouts of depression throughout my life, but they’ve been short lived.”
Mr Fletcher welcomed the reforms, but expressed fears they don’t go far enough. He said: “I think it’s good, however, it’s nowhere near as good as it should be. Number one, the abolishment of Section 21 is absolutely great. That’s something every tenant in the land will be absolutely popping the corks over. However, it’s been watered down already, and I really don’t like it. I’m really unclear about how this database of bad landlords is going to work, it is sounding very vague, how they are going to do that, how they are going to enforce it.”
The concerns were shared by James Coleman, who was given a Section 21 notice kicking him, his wife and their two children out of the Crawley home they’d lived in for nine-and-a-half years. The 37-year-old revealed the toll that the notice coming through the letterbox had on his family, and how it forced them further away from their kids schools.
He said: “It came in through the door at the end of February, and it’s really heartless because there’s no notice whatsoever. Because it’s hand delivered by a member of the letting agency…there’s no stamp and so you go ‘oh s**t’, I know exactly that this is. There’s no sorry, it just says leave. It was scary, my wife and I were in tears, and just shaking.
“We managed to find somewhere, but it wasn’t going to be available until after our notice, so we had to plead for a week’s extension, which we’ve managed to get, but what if they said no? It’s been a horrible business all round, and the place we’ve got is further away from both our kids’ schools, and it’s physically smaller.”
Mr Coleman, who makes medical software, suggested the reforms still meant the power was with landlords. He said: “The thing that frustrates me is that my landlord needs to give a reference to the new landlord, but did I have to get a reference from the new landlords old tenants? No, I didn’t so it’s still very one-sided, the act has done nothing on this side of things. Maybe the ombudsman that they have to register with might help.
“I do think it’s very good for it [Section 21s] to be banned. Some people who don’t like the act are saying it’s going to make it very difficult to get rid of problem tenants, but it’s not, it’s saying you can’t do it for no reason. If you want to sell the property, you can still evict them, you just have to give them more notice. We are just raising a family, that’s all we’ve ever wanted to do, the only reason we are renting is we’ve never had a deposit. It’s almost like a class issue.”
The Renters’ Rights Act signals the end of Section 21 “no fault” evictions, meaning private landlords will not be able to evict tenants without a valid justification. Rather than fixed contracts, tenancies in the private rented sector will also roll on from month to month or week to week, giving renters more flexibility. Tenants can end them with two months’ notice. There are also fairer rent rules, with landlords only able to raise rents once a year and tenants able to challenge unfair hikes.
