Rent crisis creating production line of evictions - tenant

Sam Lowe said she was currently being evicted and had seen many families lose their homes in court

A woman fighting eviction says the renting crisis must be addressed as she is seeing a "production line" of families losing their homes.

Sam Lowe, from Oldbury in the West Midlands, said her landlord had started eviction proceedings against her a month after her mother died last year.

She was part of a rally at Downing Street on Tuesday calling for more security for tenants.

A government spokesperson said it was committed to a fairer deal for renters.

Ms Lowe said she had managed to get her family's eviction - due in March - adjourned at Dudley Magistrates' Court and now had until the start of June to find a new home.

But while at court, she said she had seen many families going through the same thing.

"When I went to court a couple of weeks ago, it's like a production line - every 10 minutes it's another family being evicted," she said.

"It's a horrible, horrible thing to see, there's just 10 people in a room within an hour all losing their homes."

She lives with her brother and sister in the home they shared with their mother for eight years.

If they are evicted and have not found a new home, the family faced being split up in temporary accommodation, she said, which was "terrifying" after becoming more united in grief over the loss of their mother.

About 300 private renters handed in a petition to Downing Street on Tuesday calling for more security for tenants

She said they were struggling to find new accommodation as landlords were demanding such high rents or deposits.

Ms Lowe, a volunteer with Acorn Birmingham, a community-based social justice union, was one of 300 private renters who protested in Westminster on Tuesday urging the government to improve legislation for renters.

Organised by the the Renters Reform Coalition, the campaigners said they wanted the abolition of no-fault evictions under the Renters Reform Bill, previously promised by the government.

Ms Lowe said legislation was too much on the side of landlords, leaving tenants "powerless". She described her situation as "life-wrecking".

She said she had returned to the UK from abroad to help care for her sick mother and their landlord had known about her mother's illness, but had begun eviction proceedings without warning or consulting them.

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The family are on a waiting list for social housing but have only moved up a few places since November because of demand, she said.

"You feel powerless," she said.

"It's a completely life-wrecking experience. You can't make plans, you're constantly looking for a place to live and to learn the law and trying to make sure they're treating you legally."

Average monthly rents had risen in their area from £850 to more than £1,200 since they had been looking for a new home, she said, and she and her siblings would therefore have to move "really far away from our family and our support network if we did get a private rented house".

"It's leaving us completely stuck," she said.

"There needs to be something in place for landlords to give a good reason why they are going to evict people, because with the rental market as it is, people can't just get somewhere to move into."

The government says a Renters Reform Bill will be brought forward in this Parliament

She said they had struggled to find support as many organisations were overwhelmed with people in a similar situation.

"There's no support, there's no safety net, everything is lined up in favour of landlords and you just have to accept it.

"But that's an impossible thing to do when there's nowhere to go and when the most basic thing that we need, which is a roof over our heads, becomes something that's unattainable," she added.

In a statement, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: "We will bring forward a Renters Reform Bill in this Parliament, abolishing no-fault evictions so that all tenants have greater security in their homes and are empowered to challenge poor conditions and unreasonable rent rises.

"We are also introducing a Decent Homes Standard for the private rented sector for the first time ever, which will make sure privately rented homes are safe and decent."

Families were also receiving "significant support" over this year and next, worth on average £3,500 per household, as well as uprated benefits and a 10% rise in the state pension in April, the statement added.