LEWES, United Kingdom: Sitting by the fireplace in her house in the south of England, Jackie Bennett recalls the shock she felt when she received out-of-the-blue an eviction notice giving her just two months to move out.
This so-called no-fault eviction, which sees Bennett kicked out of her home without cause, is a feature of English law that could soon be abolished under a new rental bill.
But campaigners have warned that landlords are ramping up these types evictions ahead of the ban being passed into law.
“I’ve canceled some of my work. I’ve canceled my Christmas plans and my holiday plans,” the 55-year-old artist explained, as she pushed back tears.
Hanging across her apartment are colorful crocheted tapestries that mask the damp that covers the walls of her house in Lewes, southern England.
Her landlord explained to her by email that she wanted to sell the property after Bennet had already received the eviction notice.
As a tenant, “you always feel vulnerable,” she said.
No-fault evictions were introduced in 1988 by Margaret Thatcher’s government as part of a push to deregulate the rental market to attract more private landlords.
Under the new Renters’ Rights Bill, currently under consideration by the Labour majority parliament, landlords will have to provide a reason in advance for evicting tenants, such as to reclaim the property to move into or unpaid rent.
The bill would give tenants a longer notice period in the event of an eviction, giving them more time to plan their next housing arrangement.
It marks an important step in protecting tenants against being evicted after they make reasonable complaints to landlords, said Ben Twomey, chief executive of tenants rights organization Generation Rent.
These instances, termed “revenge evictions” by campaigners, are a “massive problem” in England, he added.
While he supports the reforms, Twomey warned that in the absence of a rental price caps, tenants could still be evicted “through the back door” by landlords hiking rents to unreasonable levels.
Rents have already jumped over nine percent in the past year in the UK, according to official data.
Between July and September this year, 8,425 households in England where taken to court over no-fault eviction notices, the highest number in eight years, said Twomey, citing Ministry of Justice figures.
As the bill comes closer to being passed into law, more landlords have been ramping up the use of no-fault evictions, according to Paul Shamplina, founder of Landlord Action, a company that helps landlords repossess properties.
“That will increase until the ban date comes in, because landlords are worried about how will they get their property back,” he added.
Alexandra Casson, who works in television production in London, was also served one of these eviction notices after she refused her landlord’s attempt to raise the rent by over 50 percent.
She denounced it as “an absolute brazen attempt to extort tenants.”
“They forget that there are humans that live in the property assets that they shuffle around,” said the 43-year-old, based in East London’s popular Dalston neighborhood.
Casson, a member of the London Renters Union, welcomed a measure in the new bill that would extend the notice period to vacate a property from two months to four months.
Although, she predicts that it’ll take her around six months to finalize purchasing a new property, and even then, she considers herself one of the lucky ones.
‘You always feel vulnerable’: Britons impacted by no-fault evictions
https://arab.news/rjxxy
‘You always feel vulnerable’: Britons impacted by no-fault evictions
- This so-called no-fault eviction is a feature of English law that could soon be abolished under a new rental bill
- Campaigners have warned that landlords are ramping up these types evictions ahead of the ban being passed into law
Second death in Minneapolis crackdown heaps pressure on Trump
- Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, early Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city
MINNEAPOLIS: The Trump administration faced intensifying pressure Sunday over its mass immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, after federal agents shot dead a second US citizen and graphic cell phone footage again contradicted officials’ immediate description of the incident.
Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, early Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city, less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car.
President Donald Trump’s administration quickly claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents — as it did after Good’s death — pointing to a pistol it said was discovered on him.
However, video shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing around 10 shots at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant and thrown to the ground.
The video further inflamed ongoing protests in Minneapolis against the presence of federal agents, with around 1,000 people participating in a demonstration Sunday.
After top officials described Pretti as an “assassin” who had assaulted the agents, Pretti’s parents issued a statement Saturday condemning the administration’s “sickening lies” about their son.
Asked Sunday what she would say to Pretti’s parents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: “Just that I’m grieved for them.”
“I truly am. I can’t even imagine losing a child,” she told Fox News show “The Sunday Briefing.”
She said more clarity would come as an investigation progresses.
US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” also said an investigation was necessary to get a full understanding of the killing.
Asked if agents had already removed the pistol from Pretti when they fired on him, Blanche said: “I do not know. And nobody else knows, either. That’s why we’re doing an investigation.”
‘Joint’ probe
Their comments came after multiple senators from Trump’s Republican Party called for a thorough probe into the killing, and for cooperation with local authorities.
“There must be a full joint federal and state investigation,” Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.
The Trump administration controversially excluded local investigators from a probe into Good’s killing.
Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz posed a question directly to the president during a press briefing Sunday, asking: “What’s the plan, Donald Trump?“
“What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?“
Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants.
Trump has repeatedly amplified the racially tinged accusations, including on Sunday when he posted on his Truth Social platform: “Minnesota is a Criminal COVER UP of the massive Financial Fraud that has gone on!“
The city, known for its bitterly cold winters, has one of the country’s highest concentrations of Somali immigrants.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison pushed back against Trump’s claim, telling reporters “it’s not about fraud, because if he sent people who understand forensic accounting, we’d be having a different conversation. But he’s sending armed masked men.”
Court order
Since “Operation Metro Surge” began, many residents have carried whistles to notify others of the presence of immigration agents, while sometimes violent skirmishes have broken out between the officers and protesters.
Local authorities have sued the federal government seeking a court order to suspend the operation, with a first hearing set for Monday.
Recent polling has shown voters increasingly upset with Trump’s domestic immigration operations, as videos of masked agents seizing people off sidewalks — including children — and dramatic stories of US citizens being detained proliferate.
Barack and Michelle Obama on Sunday forcefully condemned Pretti’s killing, saying in a statement it should be a “wake-up call” that core US values “are increasingly under assault.”
The former president and first lady blasted Trump and his government as seeming “eager to escalate the situation.”
