Landlords in Southampton accused of unjust evictions amid housing crisis
Citizens Advice say sanctions, section 21s (evictions) and rent arrears have risen hugely in the city
Last updated 29th Dec 2023
Landlords in Southampton are evicting tenants to avoid doing repairs, it has been claimed.
The unfair treatment of private renters, although difficult to prove, is believed to be the case by Citizens Advice.
This comes as Southampton City Council held its second of seven meetings on Thursday (December 21) to tackle the growing issues facing private renters in the city and to get them ‘a better deal’.
Citizens Advice in Southampton has dealt with 2,200 housing issues this year (2023) alone and almost half (45 per cent) of the figure is related to private renters.
Kirsty Rowlinson, a representative of Citizens Advice in Southampton, attended Thursday’s (December 21) meeting to share the organisation’s findings with the panel.
She said: “Sanctions, section 21s (evictions) and rent arrears have risen hugely in Southampton over the last couple of quarters.
“The last couple of months in particular we are really feeling the increase.
“Landlords want to raise the rent and tenants aren’t able to afford the increase.
“Sometimes landlords want to move into the property themselves or want to move family members into the property and some landlords have bitten off more than they can chew – they can’t afford the mortgage and they are selling their property.”
Ms Rowlinson went on to talk about the unjust evictions they believe are taking place in the city.
She said: “We also see quite a lot of seemingly retaliatory evictions.
“A tenant will ask for repairs to be carried out and (they will see soon after) the landlords just issued a section 21.”
“The legal process as I understand it for getting a tenant evicted is far quicker than the legal process for getting repairs done so the landlord knows that the tenant is going to be gone before the court case for the repairs comes through.
“This is what we are seeing at Citizens Advice in Southampton.”
Section 21 figures are rising faster in Southampton than they are nationally – more than tripling since the beginning of the year (2023).
The significant rise in section 21s comes at the same time as Southampton’s homelessness and rough sleeping levels are drastically increasing, with the 2021/2022 homelessness figure reaching 10.4 per 1,000 households and rough sleeping rates (on a single night) tripling in 2022.