Eviction rates

Citation

(2000), "Eviction rates", Property Management, Vol. 18 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.2000.11318dab.026

Eviction rates

Eviction rates

Keywords: Social housing, Evictions

Record numbers of council and housing association tenants are being evicted, according to figures from the county courts published in ROOF Briefing November 1999. Over the last four quarters, 23,301 households – home to an estimated 55,922 people – were given eviction orders by the courts. The number of cases in the third quarter of 1999 showed a 13 per cent rise on the equivalent figure in 1998.

ROOF Briefing also reveals that the chances of being evicted are now much higher for social housing tenants than for home owners or private tenants (one in 203 compared to one in 366 and one in 246 respectively). The number of eviction orders made by social landlords has almost doubled since 1994.

Two major causes of this trend are likely to be the above inflation rent rises under both the last and present governments and the increased pressure on landlords to meet stringent rent collection targets. Most evictions are for rent arrears rather than anti-social behaviour.

R00F Briefing editor Julian Birch comments:

Tenants of social landlords are now much more likely to be repossessed than home owners. This shocking increase in evictions is a new repossession crisis in the making. Social landlords are quick to support the fight against social exclusion, but are they using eviction as the easy option?