Lenders have called on the government to disregard Law Commission proposals that would give more protection to social housing tenants.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders this week said the plan to do away with mandatory grounds for eviction would be a "bad move". Associations currently have the power to obtain possession orders where tenants have run up two months' rent arrears.

The proposal, which was floated in the commission's April 2002 consultation paper, remains the most contentious in its review of housing tenure, which was published on 5 November. The commission's final report and draft bill on the reforms are due next spring.

Andrew Heywood, senior policy adviser at the Council of Mortgage Lenders, said the mandatory grounds for possession should be retained because of the "long-term rise in the level of rent arrears". Earlier this year, an Audit Commission report found that rent arrears for housing association tenants reached £231m in 2001/02, up £21m on the previous year.

Heywood added that the government plan to pilot the payment of housing benefit direct to tenants was heightening lenders' concerns. He added: "In the context of other government policies, this is not the right time to take the power away from housing associations."

However, housing law commissioner Martin Partington has hit back at the council's claims. "We don't understand what the problem is," he said. "Many RSLs simply say they don't regard ground 8 [schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988, arrears as a mandatory ground for eviction] as appropriate for the social sector, and don't use it. For them we won't be doing anything that's problematic."

He said the commission had added protection for associations by recommending that judges be obliged to consider rent arrears when deciding whether it is reasonable to grant a possession order.

"If you have to have 16 hearings to get someone out then no wonder they want a mandatory ground for possession rather than a discretionary ground.

"But we've firmed up our ideas for the structuring of judicial discretion, and tried to address their concerns on that point."

The paper's proposals are not guaranteed to make it on the statute books, however. The government is under no obligation to act on recommendations by the Law Commission.

Other proposals included:

  • replacing present secure and assured tenancies with a single social housing tenancy, called a type I tenancy. Assured shorthold tenancies to be replaced by a type II tenancy
  • more protection for supported housing tenants: for instance, where the provision of temporary accommodation exceeds four months, tenants can be brought within the statutory regime, and in time obtain a type I tenancy
  • landlords to be able to apply for antisocial behaviour orders in domestic violence cases
  • a general target duty on social landlords to control antisocial behaviour.

Source

Housing Today