Taylor: We are taking issue seriously
The government will not tie implementation of the Renter’s Rights Bill will “what could be a subjective assessment of court readiness”, a minister said last week.
Pushing back at concerns about whether the county court could handle an increase in landlord possession claims, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage said her department – the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – was working “closely” with the Ministry of Justice to ensure the justice system was prepared for the implementation.
Among the bill’s provisions is the abolition of so-called section 21 no-fault evictions, meaning that landlords will need to satisfy a statutory ground for possession, which it is widely expected will lead to far more court hearings than now.
Speaking during the bill’s second reading in Parliament last week, Baroness Taylor said: “It is a serious concern, and we take it seriously. We do not believe that it is appropriate to tie in the implementation date of these urgently needed reforms to what could be a subjective assessment of court readiness.
“I reassure your Lordships that we are working very closely with the Ministry of Justice to assess the impacts of our legislation on the courts and tribunals, and to ensure that the justice system is prepared for the implementation of the bill more generally.
“Our discussions with the MoJ cover a range of options for managing the impact of these and our other housing reforms, including mitigations to help avoid disputes arising in the first place, thereby keeping away some of this from the courts, and to manage the risks that are associated.
She added that the digitisation of the court possession process would make the process easier to navigate.
Conservative shadow minister Baroness Scott of Bybrook accused the government of “rushing [the bill] through without any care for the repercussions that will reverberate throughout the sector”.
She continued: “Labour has abandoned our commitment to improvements in His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service before abolishing section 21 for existing tenancies, as well as our six-month implementation period before abolishing section 21 for new tenancies.
“This means that our courts will not be resourced as they need to be. Labour has also abandoned our requirement for the Lord Chancellor to assess the courts’ possession processes before abolishing section 21 for existing tenancies, which would have ensured that they were ready for the changes first.”
Fellow Tory Lord Northbrook added: “The courts are already facing huge backlogs. Ending Section 21 will put an even greater strain on them.
“They will need to consider and process possession cases where landlords have good cause, under the section 8 process.
“The [House of Commons’] housing select committee has previously warned that the courts will be overwhelmed without reform. Government data suggests that it takes a court an average of just over seven months to process section 8 possession cases.
“This is from a case being accepted to the property being repossessed and includes cases related to anti-social behaviour and serious rent arrears.”
He complained that, despite the bill representing the most significant reforms to the private rented sector in over 30 years, “no clear implementation plan has been developed or published”.
Another Tory, Lord Jamieson, noted that the legislation also included provisions enabling tenants to challenge rent increases more easily.
“While the right to challenge unjust rent hikes is important… a system that allows all rent increases to be appealed with no downside risks flooding the court system.
“How will the First-tier Tribunal manage the added burden of rent appeals, when it is already struggling with its current case load?”
He cited the comment of housing minister Matthew Pennycook, during the public bill committee debate in the House of Commons, that “there is no dispute on the government side of the committee as to the fact that the court system is on its knees after the past 14 years”.
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