A retaliatory eviction is where a tenant makes a legitimate complaint to their landlord about the condition of their property and, in response, instead of making the repair, their landlord serves them with an eviction notice.
Protecting tenants from eviction
On 1 October 2015, a number of provisions in the Deregulation Act 2015 came into force. These provisions are designed to protect tenants against unfair eviction.
Your landlord cannot evict you for 6 months using the ‘no fault’ eviction procedure (a section 21 eviction) if the following happens:
- you make a genuine complaint about the condition of your property that has not been addressed by your landlord
- your complaint has been verified by us
- we serve or intend to serve an improvement notice or a notice of emergency remedial action
Your landlord also needs to make sure the repairs are completed.
What you should do
If after 14 days from making a complaint, your landlord does not reply with a satisfactory timescale for carrying out the works, you should contact the Private Sector Housing Team and ask them to carry out an inspection to verify the need for a repair. If the council serves a relevant enforcement Notice you may be protected against revenge eviction under the Retaliatory Eviction and the Deregulation Act 2015.
Our inspection
We'll undertake an inspection and tell your landlord about the inspection in advance. If the inspection verifies your complaint, our enforcement officer will take appropriate action.
If we serve an Improvement Notice or Notice of Emergency Remedial Action, your landlord cannot evict you for 6 months using the no-fault eviction procedure.