One in 12 private renters has received a ‘no-fault’ eviction notice since March 2020

Survey commissioned by Generation Rent also shows that a third of renters in England fear they will lose their home in the year ahead

One in 12 private renters has received a 'no-fault' eviction notice since March 2020, according to new polling from Generation Rent.

The survey of a sample of private renters in England shows that 8 per cent of respondents (equivalent to almost 700,000 or one in 12 renters) had received a Section 21 notice during the Covid-19 pandemic, which allows landlords to evict tenants without needing a reason. A further 3 per cent had received a Section 8 notice, which involves the landlord providing a reason, while 7 per cent were asked to move out without formal notice.

In addition, the survey findings include -

• almost a third of respondents (32 per cent) said they were concerned about the possibility of their landlord asking them to move out this year - equivalent to 2.78 million private renters across England;
• around two thirds (64 per cent) of respondents said that 6 months' notice to leave a property is ‘adequate’, while 17 per cent said it was too short.

Generation Rent highlights that these findings come two years to the day since the government announced plans to replace Section 21 with open-ended tenancies. The charity says that it is therefore continuing its collaboration with other leading housing organisations that make up the Renters Reform Coalition, to campaign for a redesigned, more just housing system.

For more information, see 700,000 renters hit with unfair eviction notices during pandemic from generationrent.org