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This is a very positive measure and long overdue. The example given by @Anon 12:38 does not apply as it is proposed under the new measures to allow a landlord to seek possession if they need it for their own use or they wish to sell the property.

Many if not most properties being let are owned as buy-to-let investments with the s.21 notice being used to evict 'troublesome' tenants. Tenants are frightened to complain about disrepairs because they know that the landlord will serve a s.21 notice to get rid of them. Similarly, the measures to challenge high rents are useless as the landlord can simply evict the tenant. The ban on retaliatory evictions doesn't work as the rules are convoluted and in any event the ban lasts only for 6 months.

It is a disgraces that commercial tenants are much better protected than residential tenants with a minimum of 6m notice to terminate, an automatic right to renew at the end of their tenancies and measures to control rent increases. Commercial tenancies can indeed be contracted out of the rights, but in residential tenancies we are dealing with people's homes where there are often children and vulnerable people or jobs are dependant on it.

There should be a fast process to evict tenants who don't pay or are anti-social. But law abiding tenants who pay their rent on time should have security of tenure and should not always be wondering when they are going to be made to leave especially if they have complained about disrepairs, or when they will be priced out of their homes.

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