Hampshire mum faces being made homeless due to no-fault eviction

A mum-of-four says she is facing being homeless in a week after her landlord issued an eviction order.

Kristie Dodson, from Petersfield in Hampshire, has been looking for new accommodation with no success after being asked to leave in June.

The 37-year-old has been sent a Section 21 notice which allows a landlord to evict a tenant without giving a reason.

She told the BBC: "It's horrendous, I feel like I'm failing my children and that's really hard."

Ms Dodson believes she is struggling to find a new place due to "stereotypes around being a single parent".

"You feel like you are not good enough. It's really scary because you don't know what is going to happen," she said.

Ms Dodson has been offered temporary accommodation by her council but that would be more than one-and-a-half hours away, which she said would mean having to leave her job and change her children's schools.

Linda Taylor, from the Local Government Association, said councils are struggling to help due to pressures on finances

Plans to ban Section 21 notices, also known as "no-fault" evictions, have been indefinitely delayed until after reforms in the court system.

Ms Dodson is set to appear in court in days and faces the possibility of being homeless.

"The judge will be telling me when I need to be evicted from my home," she told the BBC.

"I do not have legal representation and I continue to pay my rent on time but it's really scary. They could say you've got one week, where do I go?

"Stress-wise it's horrific. It's really affecting my mental health. I don't sleep well… I don't see an answer."

The number of people in the UK who have received eviction notices in the past three months has gone up by 38%.

Linda Taylor, head of housing at the Local Government Association, said: "The local authority, the traditional provider of social housing, is not in a position to provide affordable housing because we don't have the finances."

A spokesperson for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: "The renters reform bill delivers a fairer private rented sector.

"Abolishing Section 21, no-fault evictions, means all tenants have greater security in their homes and are empowered to challenge poor practice without worrying about retaliatory eviction."

Follow BBC South on Facebook, X, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].