TENANTS’ campaigners say an “eviction crisis” is looming next week when landlords can again instruct sheriff officers to evict occupants as the ban instituted during the pandemic ends.
A week after the new intake of MSPs settle into Holyrood, members of Scotland’s tenants’ union Living Rent will plant all the eviction notices granted during lockdown into the turf at the Scottish Parliament.
Others will deliver eviction orders issued in their constituencies to MSPs’ offices in Dundee, Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy, Motherwell, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Living Rent is demanding an extension to the eviction ban to bring it into line with the furlough scheme, and more protection against unfair and illegal evictions, as well as a ban on them this winter.
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The union and tenants threatened with eviction are calling on their newly elected MSPs to take immediate action to stop an impending crisis.
On Monday, landlords in Scotland will again be given the green light to evict tenants, meaning they will have less protection than their counterparts in England, who are protected until the end of this month.
Living Rent have contacted MSPs and councillors to highlight the impending wave of evictions and put forward their own policy suggestions.
On Saturday, they will “plant” 300 eviction orders into the turf outside Holyrood and hear testimonies from tenants threatened with eviction.
Bryce Goodall, a Living Rent member in Fife said: “As MSPs move into their new offices, they need to get to work protecting tenants from forced removal from their homes.
“If the eviction ban ends on May 17, Scotland will again fall behind the UK Government who have a ban on evictions until May 31.”
Almost 240 eviction orders have been granted by the Scottish First Tier Housing Tribunal over the last year.
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Meg Bishop, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh said there may be many more that never reach the tribunal or are executed illegally.
“The Scottish Government has said throughout the pandemic that no one should be evicted due to financial hardship caused by the pandemic, yet half of the eviction orders granted during the pandemic were due to arrears,” she said.
A study by the Renters’ Reform Coalition found that one in 12 tenants has been served with a no fault eviction notice in the rest of the UK.
From the beginning of the pandemic, tenants have called for action from the Scottish Government, which introduced an extension to eviction notice periods in April 2020 and then a ban on the execution of eviction orders in December until now, after lobbying from Living Rent and other housing organisations.
Jack Hanington, from Living Rent, said: “Allowing landlords to evict tenants with no further protections in place will only lengthen the social housing waiting lists and stretch Scotland’s homelessness services and temporary accommodation further.”
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