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'Selling properties with tenants in situ is best way to reduce Section 21 evictions'

warwick spencer|landlord spencer warwick

Instead of abolishing Section 21 the government should encourage landlords to keep their tenants when they sell rather than via 'vacant possession', a leading landlording expert has claimed during a podcast with TV star Phil Spencer.

Property Tribe's Vanessa Warwick (main pic) suggests encouraging the sale of tenanted properties so that renters can remain in their home, which would answer negative rhetoric about forced homelessness from tenants' groups.

Speaking to TV's Phil Spencer on the Move iQ Property Podcast, Warwick said: 'Estate agents always recommend vacant possession, but you can still get a very fair price with a tenant in situ if you sell to another landlord.'�

The pair were discussing ways to stem the number of frustrated landlords leaving the sector, and Warwick also suggested that giving landlords back tax relief taken away by Section 24 of the Finance Act would immediately turn on the tap of available properties.

Problems

Problems were being exacerbated by central government not understanding the sector, said Warwick, who added that the cost of living crisis affecting tenants and resulting rising rents as stock dwindles would result in something cracking.

'There's a massive disconnect, with the Government trying to deter landlords and force them out, and local government screaming for landlords as they don't have enough social housing so they have to discharge their housing obligations into the PRS," she said.

Spencer said: 'The government were previously making changes to make it less attractive to be a landlord as they felt a lot of landlords were mopping up properties that would have been bought by first-time buyers, like one and two bed flats.

'I understood that, but now they've gone far too far and not many landlords are getting in and those that are in are getting out.'�

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