Section 21 notice: Dismay over Renters Reform Bill progress

The 70-year-old says he had lived in his home for 16 years and built a community around him.

“I was happy there, and I looked after the place. It might have been owned by my landlord, but it was my home, and I cared for it, paid my rent on the nail, never missed a beat in 16 years.”

He says getting an eviction notice was a “heck of a shock” and he couldn’t find anywhere else in the area as rents had gone “sky high”. Discovering his pension wouldn’t cover local rents was also “really scary”.

Under the proposed new laws, Mr Roberts’ landlord would have still been able to evict him as he wanted to sell the property.

The proposals will allow landlords to repossess their home if they want to sell it, or if they or close family wish to move into it.

Mr Roberts says homes should be seen as more than an “asset” and amendments to the Bill have made it “toothless”.

“I think it’s criminal, and, you know, if I was a bit dark about it… I would be thinking it would just be the fact that all the MPs own properties and that sort of thing, because it’s really been mauled… all the teeth have been removed from the Bill. It gives no protection at all.”

The National Residential Landlords Association dismisses such claims as “nonsense”.

Ben Beadle, its chief executive, said: “The Bill does not delay the end of Section 21 indefinitely. The planned review of the courts will take place after Section 21 is ended for new tenancies, but before it is scrapped for existing ones.

“The government cannot set the date for this until the Bill is passed by the House of Lords.”