<>Government action to extend the ban on tenant evictions until the end of August, leaves landlords powerless to take action against tenants committing domestic abuse or making the lives of fellow tenants or neighbours a misery, the National Landlord Knowledges Association has claimed.

A great many tenants are at risk, it said, pointing to research published last year by Bristol University. This found that just under four in ten of the 251 people interviewed were living in private rented property.

Further, the charity Refuge has said that there has been a rise of two-thirds in the number of calls to its Domestic Violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NRLA said landlords will often end tenancy agreements and offer a fresh one, for the same property, to the victim independent of the abuser.

‘Extending the evictions ban is not without victims’, said NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle. ‘It leaves landlords powerless to tackle the kind of behaviour that causes untold suffering and hardship for many communities and tenants alike.

‘These cases must be given top priority by the courts and their processes enhanced to avoid further delay once they start to deal with possession cases’.