A letting agent has slammed Shelter’s campaign to highlight Section 21 eviction cases as “absurd sensationalism”.

David Votta, of Kent-based Votta Sales and Lettings, says there isn’t enough balanced reporting in media stories about evicted tenants, labelling A Daily Record story as “headline grabbing”.

The article, ‘Landlord kicked my family out five days before Christmas and served my child the eviction notice’, features Emma Hayes and her young family who tells how they were evicted five days before Christmas 2023, with the eviction notice being served to her child.

Emma explains that she needed to be induced for her son’s birth and that her daughter needed therapy to help deal with anxiety following the move.

Shelter helped her find a new rental home and the charity is quoted in the piece explaining how the number of households with children who were either threatened with homelessness or already homeless increased by 3.9% this year.

Truth

Letting agent Votta writes on LinkedIn: “The notice was served on the 20th December so they were ‘asked’ to leave on 21st February the following year, but that first two sentences are more powerful as opposed to the truth.”

He adds: “These headline grabbers are getting worse. The sensationalism is absurd. This continued approach will hurt the very people the legislation coming in is trying to protect…the losses that landlords can and do incur are catastrophic, but this always gets overlooked.”