Exclusive: New guidelines advise police to assume that evictions they respond to are likely to be unlawful, addressing concerns about potential bias.
London police will receive new guidance to arrest landlords engaged in illegal and sometimes violent tenant evictions due to concerns about potential bias and the enabling of unlawful actions. This move follows a 41% annual increase in legitimate "no-fault" evictions involving court-appointed bailiffs. The updated guidance instructs frontline officers to presume that any eviction they respond to may be illegal, emphasizing that tenants should stay in their homes. Officers will also be explicitly informed that landlords resorting to violence to access occupied properties are committing a crime.
Approximately 8,000 tenants in England face illegal evictions each year, but only a few cases are reported as potential crimes. Police responses to illegal eviction calls have been inconsistent, sometimes refusing to attend or even assisting landlords in unlawful evictions.
Under the new guidance, officers will be directed to "arrest where necessary" when landlords engage in illegal eviction tactics such as changing locks, forcibly ejecting tenants, cutting utilities, and using threatening behavior. The guidance was developed in collaboration between Scotland Yard, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and renters' groups, including Generation Rent.
Sadiq Khan highlighted that illegal evictions disproportionately affect vulnerable renters and welcomed the guidance as a means to protect London's renters from unlawful practices. Police will need to distinguish between civil and criminal acts, report offending landlords to authorities, and ensure tenants are allowed back into their homes. The guidance's effectiveness will depend on its adoption by frontline officers responding to eviction incidents where bailiffs are not present.