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“We were really hoping this was somewhere we could really live long-term,” says Christina. “Somewhere to recover and heal from what happened to us. But instead, here we go again.”
Single mother of two has just received her second Section 21 eviction Notice in less than two yearsShe and her boys will now have to say goodbye to their second home by the end of February,
From May, landlords will be Banned from using controversial power under LaborNew Tenant Rights Act. Until then, they can serve these “no-fault” notices to evict a tenant without reason on two months’ notice.
“Getting one into a single-parent home before Christmas, and telling about your Children Christina, from Muswell Hill, north London, says: ‘I’m really sorry but there won’t be any presents this year…it’s so scary.’
The creative freelancer lived in her previous property for 15 years before being issued a section 21 notice. His struggling to find a home She and her children – now aged 18 and 11 – were left homeless for seven months.
he was living in temporary accommodation in before finding their current home at Travelodge, while their eldest daughter was sitting her GCSE exams.
Mum-of-two Christina, from Hertfordshire, was issued a section 21 notice in September. The 46-year-old, his partner and their Children They were given time till the end of November to leave the house where they had been living for nine years.
About a week before the deadline, Christina was able to negotiate an extension until the end of February. She said: “I contacted the agents we work with and literally begged, and said ‘we have nowhere to go’ and six weeks later it’s Christmas.”
Even with the extra time, Christina is having difficulty finding a new place to live in her area. Despite both she and her partner being in full-time employment, the family is finding that rental costs in the area have barely become affordable.
“A few times we went to look at a property and within half an hour we were smitten,” she says, “You have to make a decision in about 10 minutes.”
We’re “banging our heads against a brick wall”, she says, and it turns out they would need to pay £500 more for a similar property in the same area, taking them up to at least £2,000 a month.
Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “Homes are the foundation of our lives. But eviction breaks those foundations, pushing people into poverty and homelessThese stories show that the end of Section 21 cannot come soon,
“Landlords can still force us out of our homes by raising rents beyond what we can afford. The government must put a stop to rising rents to ensure every tenant remains safe in their home.”
Mr. Twomey is one of many Accommodation Campaigners who are calling for the government to take more action to tackle rising rents in Britain argue that its Tenants Rights Act does not go far enough.
According to data from Rightmove, the average rent across the country reached a record high in the third quarter of 2025, at £2,736 in London and £1,385 in the rest of the UK.
Labor He has said that he is against rent control – where the government limits how much landlords can raise their prices. However, the Act would introduce greater powers for tenants to appeal against “excessive above-market rents”, often referred to as “backdoor evictions”.
Paul Shanks of the Renters Reform Coalition says the Section 21 ban “will come too late to protect renters like Christina, or the hundreds of thousands of other tenants who have been evicted while waiting for successive governments to fix our broken rent system”.
“While welcome, the new law will not address the key issue for the majority of renters in England – the exorbitant cost of rent,” he said.
“The government must do more to make rents truly affordable and put money back into tenants’ pockets. As a first step, the rent cap will be raised to prevent them being outstripped by inflation or wages, which will help keep tenants in their homes by preventing landlords from using unfair rent increases as a form of backdoor eviction.”
A spokesperson for MHCLG said: “The Government is committed to supporting tenants. Our landmark Tenants’ Rights Act will permanently ban no-fault evictions under Section 21, ensuring no one is ever evicted wrongfully again.
“We are taking action to help tenants by capping advance payments for one month’s rent, ending unfair bidding wars, and giving tenants stronger powers to challenge excessive rent increases.”