The Homelessness Reduction Bill has recently been presented to the House of Commons with the second reading due to commence late October 2016.

The Bill aims to reduce homelessness by allowing:

• Early intervention to prevent homelessness,

• The provision of support packages to single homeless people, and

• Effective enforcement of homelessness legislation.

At present Local Authorities can only provide support to tenants once they declare themselves homeless, which they cannot do based on an eviction notice alone so councils advise tenants to ignore the notice and remain in the property, often until bailiffs arrive. This situation is far from ideal for all parties involved but it forces private residential landlords in to initiating further legal proceedings for possession which are costly, time-consuming and should not be necessary. This can lead to landlords not wanting to rent to vulnerable tenants due to the issues they will likely face when looking to regain possession of their property.

The new Bill will allow councils to provide assistance to potentially homeless people based solely on an eviction notice from their landlord. This will allow private landlords to regain possession of their properties within reasonable timescales and remove the need for costly legal proceedings.

The Bill has been supported by the Residential Landlords Association and here at DASH anything that assists private landlords and tenants across England and Wales gets a thumbs up from us. We will keep you updated as the Bill progresses through Parliament.

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