A revenge eviction is a term used in the United Kingdom to describe an eviction process initiated by a landlord where a tenant asks for repairs to be carried out or complains about conditions. Campaign groups such as Shelter have called for revenge evictions to be legislated against.

England and Wales

In England and Wales, an assured shorthold tenancy is the default legal category for residential tenancies. This allows a

section 21 notice In England and Wales, a section 21 notice, also known as a section 21 notice of possession or a section 21 eviction, is the notice which a landlord must give to their tenant to begin the process to take possession of a property let on an assured sh ...

eviction, which does not require the landlord to have any reason for evicting tenants after a fixed-term tenancy ends or during a tenancy with no fixed end date. This allows landlords to evict or threaten tenants that complain without needing to give an explanation. The

Deregulation Act 2015 The Deregulation Act 2015 (c. 20) is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It is An Act to make provision for the reduction of burdens resulting from legislation for businesses or other organisations or for individuals; make provision for th ...

introduced some curbs on when a

of possession may be served upon a tenant following a complaint of disrepair. However, data collected since then suggests that very few tenants are protected from revenge evictions after making complaints about their housing quality. A 2015 Citizens Advice study on section 21 evictions found that tenants evicted using this process were twice as likely to have complained to their landlord, and six times as likely to have complained about their landlord to a local authority. Several groups, including Generation Rent, Shelter, and the

Local Government Association The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national membership body for local authorities. Its core membership is made up of 339 English councils and the 22 Welsh councils through the Welsh Local Government Association. The LGA is p ...

,{{Cite web, title=Councils and Labour add to calls to scrap Section 21 eviction powers, url=https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2020/7/councils-and-labour-add-to-calls-to-scrap-section-21-eviction-powers, access-date=2020-08-21, website=Letting Agent Today, language=en have called on the government to scrap section 21 for this reason.

References

Landlord–tenant law