Charities call for law change to protect tenants

27/03/2009

Charities teamed up today to launch a new campaign to protect hidden victims of the credit crunch - rental tenants whose landlords have their homes repossessed.

Shelter, Citizens Advice, Crisis and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) said that numbers of renters who lose their homes for this reason is on the increase.

Recent figures from mortgage lenders showed that overall repossession numbers spiked from 27,000 in 2007 to 40,000 last year, due to the worsening credit crisis and economic downturn.

However, the charities pointed out that tenants whose landlords have their homes repossessed currently enjoy few of the legal protections normally given to renters who lose their homes without notice for other reasons.

The groups are calling for a change in the law as a consequence, which would give the courts power to defer repossession proceedings until the tenant could find suitable alternative accommodation.

Leslie Morphy, chief executive of Crisis, said: "It is outrageous that the first time some people discover they are going to lose their home is when the bailiffs ring the doorbell."

Adam Sampson, chief executive of homeless charity Shelter, added: "Shelter has seen a steep rise in the number of tenants who have kept their side of the bargain by paying their rent but who are being thrown out onto the street because their landlords have defaulted on the mortgage and the house has been repossessed."

Tags; Housing Debt and Bills, Recent Graduate Debt,

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