Member

To conclude, we believe that asking landlords for robust evidence to evict a tenant should not prove onerous if landlords are planning to use the eviction ground as intended. Evictions can cause significant disruption and hardship for tenants, so there should be a high threshold for evidence to ensure that evictions are served only where there are legitimate grounds. A high evidentiary threshold provides a deterrent for misuse, giving some protection for renters, even if, in reality, it is highly unlikely that they will reverse the eviction in the courts. It is about incentivising landlords to do the right thing, which most of them will do, but deterring the small minority of unscrupulous ones. Perhaps the Minister could give at least some consideration to the legitimate concerns behind these amendments.