One tenant a week evicted as number not paying rent soars

THE number of council house tenants failing to pay their rent has increased as the recession continues to bite, leaving city leaders chasing more than £1.3 million of debt.

New figures from the city council show that 4,703 of its tenants fell behind with their rent repayments in the last year – a 3.8 per cent increase on a year earlier.

An average of one tenant a week is also being forcibly evicted from their homes because of their failure to pay their rent.

The city is currently owed 1.38m in overdue rent. In the year to April 2009, the council had to serve 1,269 legal notices on unpaid rent, compared to 1,094 in 2007-8 as tenants struggle with rising debts.

Graeme Brown, director of housing and homelessness charity Shelter Scotland, said: "These are worrying figures which show increasing numbers of people are struggling with debt as the recession deepens.

"Our recent research showed rent arrears is the number one reason people in Scotland are evicted from their homes. 230 households in Edinburgh and almost 3,600 across Scotland were evicted or forced to abandon their home as a result of legal action taken by social landlords last year.

"Eviction should only ever be used as a last resort to prevent families facing the tragedy of losing their home."

In recent years, the city council has adopted a more preventative strategy and the total value of rent it is owed has declined year-on-year, from 1.44m a year ago to 1.38m.

However, the number of eviction notices served has increased from 230 a year ago to 263 now.

Fifty-one people have refused to move and had to be thrown out of their homes, five more than a year ago.

Stirling Council last week voted to ban evictions for rent arrears because of the current climate.

Other councils have also taken action to reduce the number of people taken to court for unpaid rent.

"We hope the people of Edinburgh will not be left behind on this front," said Mr Brown.

The city council says that it implements a "pre-court protocol", where arrears recovery teams must demonstrate that a range of interventions have been attempted before it begins court action.

A spokesman for the city council said: "These are challenging economic times for everyone and we are working closely with our tenants to try and give them support and advice to prevent them falling into rent arrears.

"We also help tenants maximise their income through benefits advice and helping them claim what they are due.

"We have made great improvements over the past five years as the amount of money owed in rent and number of tenants in serious arrears has reduced every year.

"This shows that our emphasis on successful early intervention to reduce the number of tenants taken to court and ultimately evicted for arrears is making a real difference."