More than 1,800 renters ‘at risk of homelessness’ contacted charity in three months

More than 1,800 people living in rented accommodation contacted housing charity Threshold in the final quarter of last year to say they were at risk of homelessness.

Threshold said the majority of those tenants faced homelessness because their landlord had chosen to sell the home.

The charity published its 2022 quarter-four impact report on Tuesday, detailing how Threshold supported 17,012 individuals between October and December last, including 10,555 adults and 6,457 children.

Advisers answered more than 11,000 calls and responded to some 2,500 webchats from private renters facing tenancy issues in those three months.

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Threshold said it prevented a total of 1,041 households from entering homelessness in the three-month period. In all, it said, 1,409 adults and 917 children were able to stay in their homes or were supported to secure alternative housing.

However, the report highlights that it is an “increasingly more difficult task” to prevent homelessness as a result of a landlord’s intention to sell due to there being “fewer properties available to rent, and a landlord [being] within their rights to evict for the purposes of sale”.

Ann-Marie O’Reilly, Threshold’s national advocacy manager, said tenancy terminations are the most prevalent concern facing those in private rented accommodation.

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“Most of these termination notices are as a result of the landlord deciding to sell the home - and the majority of these notices are valid - renters are being placed at immediate risk of homelessness, particularly with so few properties available to rent,” she said.

In the last quarter of last year, just over 40 per cent of notices of termination for sale of property were found to be invalid by Threshold advisers, while some 60 per cent of notices citing rent arrears as a cause for termination were deemed invalid.

Some 50 per cent of notices stating that the landlord or a family member was moving into the property were invalid. When a notice is deemed invalid, Threshold can help the tenant stay in their home.

Ms O’Reilly said: “People should not panic or take any immediate action if they receive an eviction notice or a steep rent rise – they should contact Threshold first. A significant portion of these notices are invalid and therefore the tenant has some recourse.”