LEGAL CLINIC
RENT BOYS - PART ONE
It is a fact of modern life – a vast majority of
us rent our accommodation. This is the first
in a series of articles dealing with your rights
as a renter. This week we deal with
retaliatory evictions.
One of the worst aspects of renting is the lack
of stability – private landlords can evict you
for no reason. All they have to do is give you
two months’ notice (although there are strict
rules as to the date on which the notice
should expire).
Most people would agree that a landlord
should be able to evict a tenant when there is
unpaid rent, or where the tenant is trashing
the property. However, some landlords will
evict you on unreasonable grounds. They
may try to evict you because you have
complained about the property being in a
poor state of disrepair. Or they may decide to
do so because you are LGBT.
Complaining about the property
Some landlords may decide to evict a tenant
if he or she complains about the state of the
rented property. Here we are putting up with
dodgy boilers, out of date gas certificates and
missing smoke alarms (which are now
required by law in rented properties) because
we are afraid we may be
120 THEGAYUK | ISSUE 17 | DEC 2015
evicted if we complain. It also means that
landlords evict tenants and get new ones in,
rather than solving serious faults with the
property.
All that changed on 1st October this year.
Now, a landlord’s ability to evict you for
making a complaint about a “hazard” at your
rented property is restricted. In order to
obtain this protecti