The Heartbreaking Stories of Life in Britain for Victims of No-Fault Evictions – Five Years After They Were Meant to be Outlawed

Sulejman Kamara has been trapped in a hotel for two years. The builder, his wife and two autistic children lost their home of eight years in Kilburn, north-west London, after their landlord served them a no-fault eviction. 

They never got back their deposit, and lost several possessions in the eventual bailiff-enforced eviction in 2022.

“It was shocking to have to leave like that with our two kids,” he told Byline Times. “Imagine having to leave so suddenly with a one year old.”

They were also left homeless as local estate agents refused to show them family homes because they did not meet financial requirements, which Sulejman says included having an external guarantor and being able to pay several months rent upfront.

After asking Brent Council for help, the family were moved to a nearby hotel where they shared one mould-ridden room. That was supposed to last just a few weeks as it is unlawful for councils to accommodate families in temporary accommodation that is a privately-owned B&B for more than 6 weeks. But, two year later the family is still living in that same, single, room and things have got worse.

The council stopped giving the family housing duty a year ago after they rejected a permanent property it offered that their doctor and school said was unsafe for their children. The council classed the family as making themselves ‘intentionally homeless’, a council-determined category that strips people of access to support. It means someone is homeless because of something they did, or failed to do.

Sulejman and his wife now pay £1,500 a month for a room, are unable to get a new home from the council and can’t access the private rental market, despite both working. Brent Council told Byline Times it can’t “reopen the housing duty” to the family.

The family is just one of almost 105,000 households living in temporary accommodation in the UK and struggling to get out of it, and one of thousands of victims of no-fault evictions. In March, The Guardian reported that some children are now spending their entire childhoods in temporary accommodation and that thousands of families had been housed in it for more than a decade. The publication said the homelessness crisis is “spiralling out of control”.

Last week marks five years since the Conservative Government first pledged to outlaw the practice. On March 1, London Mayor Sadiq Khan demanded the Government finally act on its promise to protect renters as City Hall analysis found that more than 30,000 renting households in the capital have faced a Section 21 ‘no-fault eviction’ claim since 2019.

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But despite a formal Renters (Reform) Bill finally entering Parliament in May 2023 pledging to end no-fault evictions, extensive lobbying by landlords and Conservative MPs has seen it heavily watered down, and the proposed ban on no-fault evictions at best being delayed, potentially indefinitely.

In the meantime, the number of no-fault eviction notices served in England increased by almost a third (28%) in 2023, the highest rate since 2016 – 30,230 landlords started court proceedings against their tenants.

Byline Times spoke to those forced out through the practice to gauge what the impact of the delay would have.

Nico had lived in the same Brighton flat for eight years before their landlord told them they had to move out. They planned to sell the building to a new owner, and last month Nico received a notice ordering them to leave. 

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“I’m disabled and don’t work so I’m reliant on benefits system, which obviously is difficult enough in itself. But almost impossible when it comes to trying to find somewhere to live,” they told Byline Times.

“And I’ve never actually been in this situation before when I haven’t been working.”

Research in 2022 by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism of tens of thousands of rental properties, found 98% of those advertised over a single month were beyond the means of people received universal credit or housing benefit. Analysis by the Financial Times suggested that the last time house prices were this expensive relative to incomes was in the 1870s. The average house price in the 12 months to January 2024 in England was £299,000, according to Government figures.  The average salary, across all industry sectors in the UK, was £34,900 pre-tax, according to figures published in March.

Nico’s landlord has been talking about the eviction for months, but has not given any firm timeline as to when they need to leave by, leaving them “in a constant state of stress and anxiety”.

“To not know – it makes you feel insecure and vulnerable,” Nico said.