Rongmala thought the hardest part would be making the decision to move in with her children and rent out the south London maisonette she could no longer live in because of her disabilities. Instead, the 57-year-old says she has been left waiting on the courts while her tenant stops paying rent, piles up arrears and refuses to leave.
Several months after the rent stopped last year, the tenant was about £15,000 behind, and Rongmala eventually served an eviction notice and began court proceedings. A judge has since awarded her a possession order, but only court-appointed bailiffs can remove the tenant, and her family has been told that could take up to 11 months. The Renters Rights Act comes into force in England on 1 May, bringing a ban on no-fault evictions and limits on rent increases, but for Rongmala the law has arrived too late to ease the strain already built into her case.
That strain is not only legal. Rongmala said she had to find £2,500 for boiler repairs, service charges on the estate and a mortgage on the property while losing the rental income she depended on. She says the financial pressure is causing her depression. Her son Marouf said the toll on his mother was heartbreaking, and that he felt helpless watching her struggle with the situation.
The wider picture explains why the issue is landing so hard. The Renters Rights Act is being described as the biggest overhaul of the private rented sector in a generation, and landlord groups say property owners will become increasingly reliant on the courts to handle repossession claims once it takes effect. But for tenants and landlords already locked in disputes, the system is already slow enough to trap both sides in place.
Other renters say the same pressure is shaping their lives. Fran Brown said she has had to move properties five times since 2017, while James said he received a terrifying eviction notice at the end of February. Earlier this month, Rosie and her friends joined a protest in London, saying they had moved dozens of times and were spending 70% of their salaries on rent. For Rongmala, though, the answer is more immediate: she wants her property back, and the law now says the courts — not the landlord — will decide how long that takes.
