A SINGLE mum was left fuming after her and her two kids were evicted by their landlord after he hiked up the rent by £225 a month.
Laura Hayton, 46, had been renting her house for six years when she was informed in December that her rent would increase by 20 per cent.
GettyA mum was left shocked after a £225 increase in rent per month (stock image)[/caption]
The shocked mum described the soaring rental costs as a “fortune” with the raise having a big impact on her finances.
Speaking to the Guardian, she said: “The landlord can’t make their sums add up so they need to raise the rent. They wanted £225 more a month, an absolute fortune.
“The letting agent told me that it’s still a ‘fair rent’, and that they had all gone up round here recently.”
The project manager even tried to negotiate for a smaller increase but instead received an eviction notice in January.
And the furious mum couldn’t believe her ears when she was told the reason for her eviction.
She continued: “It was a massive shock, I was really upset and felt very insecure. For days it was all I could talk about.
“I have two children; they think of this as their home. The agent said the landlord wants to sell the house so they can buy a house in the Cotswolds.”
A gobsmacked Laura said that she wasn’t even given three months to find a new home.
She added: “I started looking immediately and found the market absolutely ridiculous, really competitive.”
And the mum said it was increasingly hard to find a new property because “landlords don’t want children”.
With her hunt for a new home hitting serious obstacles, Laura decided to ring the council for help.
But she was told she would have to move 20 miles away and lose a bedroom to get a council property.
Laura said that this would mean she would be driving and spending lots on fuel, and would have less time to work.
In the end, she says, she got “very lucky” because she managed to secure a new rental after seeing a neighbour move out.
The relieved mum said: “The rent at the new place is 13% more than my old one. They did the affordability check and said I can’t afford it, so I had to show them evidence of savings to cover the shortfall.
“I will be spending my house deposit to cover the rent, to make ends meet.”
She described the housing market as “horrible” and bemoaned the lack of good rental properties available.
Section 21 of existing housing legislation allows landlords to evict tenants without needing to give a reason.
The government’s Renters (Reform) Bill currently going through Parliament promises to end no-fault evictions, while also stopping landlords from imposing a blanket ban on tenants claiming benefits.
Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, says the new bill outlawing no-fault evictions should be approved by the end of this year.
Mr Gove told Newsbeat it would protect people from a “very small minority of rogue landlords who use the threat of no-fault eviction to silence tenants who want to complain about poor conditions”.
At the moment landlords must give 14 days’ notice before eviction.
Once you’ve received an eviction notice, you have two months before court action can be begun against you – and you could also be liable for some of the legal costs.
A new government-backed initiative was launched last month in England and Wales for people facing eviction or repossession.
Tens of thousands of people each year at risk of losing their homes are now being offered free legal advice.
The new service went live just days after figures revealed a 25-year high in the number of people in temporary housing.
But the move to ban no-fault evictions has prompted concerns about landlords rushing to kick tenants out while they still can.