Gove's rent reforms will strip existing Assured tenants of their rights.

haspden

Tories keeping very quiet on this facet of their rent reform bill that will allow councils to remove existing assured tenants so they can sell any property that is valuable.

The Tory government is very quietly and sneakily removing rights from existing Assured tenants.

(I am not talking about Assured Shorthold tenants, but Assured Tenants who had security of tenure)

In one of the most evil and shocking acts of this government, all existing Assured tenants are to be stripped of their rights. If you have a lifetime council tenancy you've very liked got an Assured Tenancy and you will have no more security under Gove's plans which are now at a very advanced stage.

In future, any Assured tenant can simply be evicted with two months notice by the Landlord or council saying "We're selling the property" now you can be got out.

If you're a non council assured tenant, your landlord can now simply claim they want the property for their son or daughter and your previously rock solid right to stay under your assured tenancy, is demolished under Gove's plans.

It's being brought in under cover of "Giving tenants more security" so you can bet it does anything but...

The evil of it, is sweeping away the rights of any existing assured tenant. This affects many elderly and disabled people who thought they were safe.  Particularly private renters who have pre-1997 tenancies they thought were secure.

Why is no one talking about this?

PLEASE GET THIS OUT THERE.

Geoark

@haspden One reason no one is talking about this, is the total misrepresentation of what is going on in your post.

 "all existing Assured tenants are to be stripped of their rights. If you have a lifetime council tenancy you've very liked got an Assured Tenancy and you will have no more security under Gove's plans which are now at a very advanced stage."

0/10 the bill is aimed specifically at the private rent market. It will not affect those with assured tenancies with council or registered social housing providers.

Policy paper

A fairer private rented sector

This white paper sets out our plans to fundamentally reform the private rented sector and level up housing quality in this country.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-fairer-private-rented-sector

"If you're a non council assured tenant, your landlord can now simply claim they want the property for their son or daughter and your previously rock solid right to stay under your assured tenancy, is demolished under Gove's plans."

5/10 you are correct that any private landlord can do this now, under section 21, no fault evictions, if the white paper goes through this will be abolished. 

Councils and registered housing associations rarely evict tenants because they sell the property on the open market, or where they are doing a major regeneration, they are offered alternative accommodation. It is more usual they will sell all or some of their stock to another registered provider, and current tenants are protected under their tenancies.

From what I have read one reason for abolishing the assured tenancy in the private rented sector is because many of the protections involved will be added to all renters in the private sector. The primary aim of the white paper is to give private renters more protection and security, reducing the number of times they have to move.

Also to be clear this affects England only.

It is fairly certain there are aspects of the paper that some will disagree with, one suggestion is to actually read the paper, see link above, and raise observations from what is actually in it.

The only other time that a UK government has stepped in to interfere in the private rented market was during the 2nd world war. Profiteering among private landlords meant rents were getting higher in areas of high demand, such as munition areas, and the women went on strike. As this was likely to affect the war effort rents were frozen from when we entered the war.

The private rental market has been dysfunctional for many years and while definitely not a fan of the Conservative party credit to them for trying to make it better, even if one of the major drivers behind this is to help boost homeownership. Of course as in all things the devil will be in the final details.