Baroness Scott: Urgent action needed on repossessions

Baroness Scott of Needham Market writes for ePolitix.com about the need to provide further protection for tenants with private landlords, ahead of her question in the Lords on Monday.

The misery of home repossessions has become all too real in recent months as the recession bites deeper. You might think that the 14 per cent of households living in the private rented sector are without risk, but with many thousands of mortgages held by landlords in arrears, their tenants face eviction with little or no protection under the law.

A joint study by Shelter, Crisis, CAB and the Chartered Institute of Housing has highlighted the problems tenants face when the property owned by their landlord is repossessed by the lender.

Due to data protection laws, mortgage lenders are not allowed to communicate directly with tenants until repossession has been agreed, assuming the lender is even aware that the property is occupied by a tenant. When they do send a letter of notice, it is addressed to 'The Occupier' – you can imagine that few of these ever get read.

There are horror stories of pensioners being evicted with just days of notice. One single parent returned from holiday to find that the locks had been changed. She was eventually allowed into her former home for 10 minutes in order to collect her possessions. In another case, a cancer sufferer was evicted by bailiffs before being allowed to remove his possessions and medication.

Government needs to take urgent action to deal with this growing problem. Where the Courts grant a possession order they should have the power to defer the action until the tenant has had a reasonable time to make alternative arrangements.

Under this arrangement, the lender could become the receiver of the rent which could start to affray the debt. The courts should be able to directly contact the tenant to keep them informed and to protect their right.