Renters being forced to move house costs £550m per year: 'I'm always in fight or flight'

Renters are paying £550m per year to move home when they do not want to leave, a new YouGov poll has found.

There were an estimated 830,000 unwanted moves for tenants in the last months, according to Shelter’s analysis of the poll, with renters forking out £669 on average in unrecoverable costs for every forced move.

The research comes as the Renters Reform Bill is due to return to parliament in the coming weeks after a leaked letter from levelling up minister Jacob Young uncovered plans to “water down” the long-awaited bill.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “Tenants are coughing up millions in unwanted and unwarranted moves, while the government runs scared of a minority of its own MPs. Instead of striking dodgy deals with backbenchers to strangle the Renters Reform Bill, Ministers should defend renters’ best hope of a stable home.  

“With protections from eviction so weak and rents so high, we constantly hear from people forced out of their homes and communities at huge personal cost. It’s impossible for renters to put down roots knowing a no-fault eviction could plunge them back into chaos at any moment.”

The Renters Reform Bill’s headline measure is intended to scrap no-fault evictions, which allow landlords to evict tenants without a reason.

The government’s own guidance on the bill says short notice moves worsen children’s educational outcomes, make it challenging to hold down stable employment, and prevent families putting down roots and investing in their local area.

Around 40% of all renters surveyed by YouGov said their last home move was forced.

Shelter said 245,000 renters moved because their fixed-term tenancy came to an end – the Renters Reform Bill is intended to move to a system of periodic tenancies instead. This has proven controversial with some of the bill’s detractors.

A further 61,000 renters were priced out by a rent increase while nearly 190,000 were served with a legal eviction notice, while 135,000 were informally asked to leave by their landlord. 

Each move leaves tenants open to a number of unrecoverable costs, including £800 on average spent paying for two properties at once and around £245 doing the same for bills.

Shelter estimated tenants lost £200 on average while viewing properties and moving house and faced the same cost for hiring a removal fan.

Cleaning the property before departure racked up another £100 on average alongside £400 to replace furniture and one-off fees like wi-fi installation contributing an extra £50.

For the average renter, a mix of these costs leaves them £669 out of pocket.

Factoring other significant upfront costs, including rent paid in advance and tenancy deposits, brings the average upfront cost of each unwanted move to £1,245 or more than £1bn collectively. 

That’s not taking into account the added expense of cost of living pressures and rising rents. The Office for National Statistics reported that rents had risen by £107 per month (9.1%), and by £207 per month in London (11.2%) in the year up to March 2024.  

Natalie, 47, from Brighton, has felt the cost of unwanted moves.

She has moved 12 times in the past 21 years and has been hit with two no fault evictions in the past 18 months alone. 

Natalie’s last rental was noisy, draughty, and freezing cold from a lack of insulation but her landlord tried to raise her rent in May 2023 from £795 to £950 a month. 

When she complained, she was slapped with a no-fault eviction a few days later. 

Natalie says that being forced out of her home twice in quick succession has cost her hundreds of pounds in moving costs and has profoundly impacted her physical and mental health.   

“Though I’ve been in my new home for seven months now, I still can’t quite relax. I haven’t even unpacked properly. I’m worried that as soon as I do, I’m going to have to move again. I feel traumatised by what’s happened. It’s like I’m always in fight or flight,” she said.

“There is nothing worse than being forced to move home. Without a stable foundation, how can you lead a fruitful life?”

The Renters Reform Bill is set to return to parliament with a number of government amendments, including a requirement for renters to sign up to a minimum of six months when starting a tenancy in a move labelled as a “tenant trap”.

Another amendment could see no-fault evictions only abolished for new tenancies with the practice still allowed for existing tenancies until promised court reforms are delivered.

Neate added: “With the bill’s third reading imminent, it’s now or never for the government to make good on its promise to deliver a watertight bill. It must resist spurious attempts to sneak fixed-term tenancies back in, and to indefinitely delay the ban on no-fault evictions. England’s 11 million tenants will remember all too well who fought for them when they finally head to the ballot box.”

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