Tenants' campaigning group Generation Rent has slammed the NRLA for pushing the government to include one and two-person student shares in the new possession ground under the Renters’ Rights Bill.
It says once the reforms kick in, landlords will be able to evict students in HMOs with three or more bedrooms at any point between June and September, affecting about 300,000 students.
“The new eviction ground (4A) is based on the idea is that if student tenancies become periodic, those flats and houses will be ‘lost’ to the student rental market if the occupants want to stay put after finishing their degree,” it explains. “If they later moved out, it might be outside of the student lettings cycle and so they’d still be lost to the student market.”
However, only 30% of students want to stay in the current home for a second year, it asserts. Most students in the private rented sector are also in HMOs – it’s unlikely that whole houses of students will stay on after their course finishes. Meanwhile, many people want to move during the academic year anyway, meaning there will always be a need for homes mid-year.
“The kicker is that the NRLA wants even more students to be at risk of eviction. They’ve been pushing for this new eviction ground to apply to those in two-student house-shares, as well as those living on their own.”
Chris Norris, chief policy officer at the NRLA, says students need confidence that properties will be available for them to rent from one year to the next.
“The government has taken steps to provide assurances on this for providers of purpose-built student accommodation and landlords renting out houses in multiple occupation,” he tells LandlordZONE.
“Such assurances need to be extended to landlords renting one-and-two-bedroom properties, which the vast majority of students opt for in their second and third years of study. Without such assurances it is students themselves who will suffer as they struggle to plan where, and with whom, they will live.”
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