Earlier this week the Government published their Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan. Backed by £160m of funding, the Action Plan sets out the Government's aim of investing in communities in order to tackle anti-social behaviour across the UK. The Action Plan broadly aims to tackle anti-social behaviour through tougher punishment, building local pride, improving reporting and early prevention.
The Action Plan aims to initially support 10 areas where anti-social behaviour is most prevalent, before scaling up enforcement across all police forces in England and Wales in 2024.
But what does the Action Plan mean for private landlords dealing with anti-social tenants?
The Action Plan details ways in which the Government plans to support landlords across the private rental sector, as follows:
Reducing the notice period from one month to two weeks for all anti-social behaviour eviction grounds, which will form part of their larger reforms for renters;
Anti-social eviction grounds are currently discretionary, so the government plan to expand this. They aim to make this ground easier to prove in court by clarifying that any behaviour 'capable' of causing 'nuisance or annoyance' can lead to eviction;
Ensuring that all private tenancy agreements include clauses to specifically ban anti-social behaviour, with a view to making it easier for landlords to use the breach of tenancy ground to evict anti-social tenants; and
Speeding up the process of evicting anti-social tenants by working with the Court and Tribunals to explore how to prioritise these cases within the Possession Lists;
When is this likely to take effect?
At this early stage there is no specific timeline for when( and if) these rules will come into force. In fact, whether or not they eventually form legislation (in this or some amended form) will rather depend on parliamentary time and will.
Some of these proposals overlap with those being introduced as part of the Renters Reform Proposals, in particular the provisions to expedite a landlords ability to evict anti-social tenants. With this in mind, some changes may come into force more quickly under the Renters Reform Bill. The Renters Reform Bill has most recently undergone its fifth report and is expected to come into effect at the end of 2023/early 2024.
If you would like anymore advice on this area, then please get in touch with our Real Estates Disputes Team.
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