The New Dark Age

27 November 2014 — 38 Degrees

Damp, dodgy wiring, or a broken boiler. Imagine asking your landlord to fix a problem that isn’t your fault. But instead of fixing it, they hand you an eviction notice instead.

Last year 200,000 people were forced out of their homes in this way. [1] It’s called revenge eviction. And right now, it’s completely legal.
Tomorrow, MPs could vote to outlaw these horribly unfair evictions. [2] If MPs hear that thousands of their voters think this dodgy practice has no place in modern Britain, they’ll feel the pressure to go along and vote. And it’s important that they do – we need 100 MPs there to make it a valid vote and the main parties haven’t committed to going yet.

Can you spare 2 minutes to email your MP and ask them to make revenge evictions illegal? Click here now to tell them to vote on Friday:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/revenge-evictions

You’d think that people in the UK would be safe and secure in their homes. But shockingly, millions of renters are still vulnerable to spur-of-the-moment evictions by rogue landlords.

The main opposition to Friday’s vote is from a small but powerful lobby of private landlords. [3] They want to keep hold of the power to evict people on a whim – so they could try and derail the vote.

But 38 Degrees members take action in our millions. We stand up for what’s fair, and we make sure that MPs know we want them to protect ordinary people, not powerful vested interests.

Alex was evicted after she made a complaint to her landlord. She told housing charity Shelter: “The house is a death trap – it has massive cracks in the walls and a ceiling collapsed on my daughter. When we asked the landlord for repairs, she served us an eviction notice. How can she be allowed to treat us like this?” 

Please click here to email your MP now and ask them to be in parliament tomorrow. There’s some suggested text, so it won’t take long.
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/revenge-evictions

Thanks for being involved,

Rachel, Laura, Maddy and the rest of the 38 Degrees team

PS: If we win the vote, it’ll need to go through more stages in Parliament before it’s law. But unless we get enough MPs there on Friday, revenge evictions will stay legal. You can email your MP here to ask them to go along:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/revenge-evictions

NOTES
[1] Shelter: True scale of revenge evictions exposed by Shelter investigation:
http://media.shelter.org.uk/home/press_releases/true_scale_of_revenge_evictions_exposed_by_shelter_investigation
[2] Parliament.uk: Tenancies Reform Bill 2014-2015:
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2014-15/tenanciesreform.html
[3] Residential Landlords Association: Retaliatory Eviction – Make sure your voice is heard:
http://news.rla.org.uk/retaliatory-eviction-make-sure-your-voice-is-heard/