Would You like a feature Interview?
All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge
In a bid to better protect renters in the capital, police in London have been ordered to start arresting landlords who illegally and sometimes violently evict tenants.
The move reportedly comes amid growing concern about officers showing bias and enabling some unlawful evictions.
Police will also be explicitly told that landlords using or threatening violence to enter an occupied home are committing a crime.
Renters’ rights campaigners estimate that about 8,000 tenants a year are illegally evicted in England, but only a handful of cases are reported as potential crimes.
Now officers should “arrest where necessary”, the new guidance seen by the Guardian, will say. They will be told a landlord changing locks, forcibly throwing a tenant out, cutting off the gas and electricity, and using threatening and bullying behaviour are signs of an illegal eviction.
The guidance has been drawn up between Scotland Yard, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and renters groups including Generation Rent.
Khan identified in 2018 that illegal evictions in the private rented sector were “a major problem” that was most likely to affect vulnerable renters who had little awareness of their rights. But the problem has persisted despite attempts to train thousands of police officers.
Announcing the new guidance, Khan said: “For too long, rogue landlords have been able to take advantage of the fact that, until now, there have been few protections in place to safeguard London’s renters from illegal evictions.”
Dan Wilson Craw, the deputy chief executive of Generation Rent, commented: “Renters need the full protection of the law when threatened with an illegal eviction. Police officers must not dismiss them as civil matters or, worse still, assist any landlord in these criminal acts.”
Police will be told to separate civil from criminal acts and that harassment, assault and use of force or violence to gain entry are crimes. They must warn landlords they are committing an offence if they proceed, arrest where necessary and make sure the landlord lets the tenant back into the home.
A Met spokesperson said: “Starting at the point that the effort of a landlord or representative to evict an individual/individuals is illegal will prompt officers to ensure that there is a bailiff in place who is in possession of the relevant paperwork, and that due process – as per the legislation – has been followed.”