Losing Section 21 is set to cause big headaches for HMO landlords dealing with extremes of anti-social behaviour, warns the head of Portsmouth’s landlord group – and will potentially hit supply.

Portsmouth & District Private Landlords Association chairman, Martin Silman, believes dealing with minor problems or when someone is very violent will become more difficult after 1^st May.

“Silly behaviour that can annoy neighbours or other housemates like constantly stealing milk, getting too drunk or waking people up in the middle of the night can really frustrate the other tenants to the extent they want to leave, but it’s not bad enough for a judge to grant possession on this basis and there’s usually no solid evidence,” explains Silman.

Resolve

“If talking to them doesn’t resolve the problem, we would typically issue a section 21 which is normally enough to make the tenant change their behaviour and we never end up proceeding with it, so the tenants stay on.”

Silman has also experienced situations where the culprit has literally threatened other tenants that if they make a formal complaint, they will stab them. “Most housemates and neighbours under that kind of threat are too scared to act as a witness or make a police report.

Judge

“The judge in a section 8 case will not take the landlord’s word for it, they won’t grant possession if there is no police report or witness other than the landlord/agent. What option is left in this scenario, apart from to sell the property and evict everyone?”

Silman says the legal system has no alternative mechanism for behaviour that’s cumulatively intolerable but evidentially trivial. Under the new regime, an inability to gain possession means other tenants could leave, the landlord suffers financially, so avoids HMOs and supply drops.

In violent cases, without a S21, the violent tenant stays while other tenants flee, the landlord might sell up, net housing supply falls and the violent tenant is often rehoused elsewhere and repeats the pattern.

“This is exactly the kind of loop policymakers underestimate,” he adds.

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