Tenant Security: "We're Going To Do It Properly"

A proposition to increase notice periods for long-serving Jersey tenants has been rejected, in favour of asking the Housing Minister to improve tenant security as part of a review of the Residential Tenancy law.

Senator Sam Mezec said the requirement for tenants in periodic tenancies to be told they only have three months to leave, even if they haven't done anything wrong, can turn their lives upside down.

"This can be people who are very happily settled in their homes, have put a lot of effort into the property they live in feel like a home, they may have children in the local school, they may have caring responsibilities managed on the basis of their location, their whole lives developed around the location they live in which can be of such fundamental importance to them.

That lack of security is a really big deal for lots of people in their lives, the fact that they can simply be issued three months notice at any point and that's it, they have to go, irrespective of what the alternatives are or how difficult that may be."

The proposition was lodged following news that occupants of some flats at Spencer Close were served eviction notices on Christmas Eve.

Senator Mezec hit back at an accusation from the Housing and Communities Minister that the proposition was 'a knee-jerk reaction' to the Spencer Close situation - and insisted that tenure security has been on his agenda since the start of the electoral term.

He also criticised Deputy Russell Labey for lodging an amendment, which because it was successful, meant his original proposition couldn't be debated by the States Assembly.

"Rather than having a fair fight and face a debate down on my proposition, the attempt is to amend it so that is does nothing.

I really say to Ministers, please stop doing this. It's not on. If you don't like a proposition, face it down and defeat it using the merits of your argument.

Don't put in wrecking amendments to deprive the assembly of the opportunity to have its say and to deny the right of backbenchers to have their propositions heard."

Deputy Labey defended the decision to lodge an amendment - saying he thought it was 'a polite and reasonable thing to do'.

He told States members that Senator Mezec's proposition ran a serious risk of making things worse instead of better for long-term tenants.

"The fundamental problem with the Senator's proposition is that it only makes one change to one type of tenancy. It only impacts on periodic tenancies, that is tenancies that don't have a fixed end date.

For that type of tenancy, the proposition would create a longer notice period for long-standing tenants, but under the current law, there is nothing to stop the landlord from changing a periodic tenancy into a fixed-term tenancy.

This would give the tenant less security of tenure, make it less likely that a tenant can stay in the same home for many years, and the current law only applies to tenancies that started after 2013 so for some long-term tenants, the Senator's proposition is irrelevant anyway."

He went on to say that Senator Mezec brought a proposition to ask him to do something he was already doing, but that he wanted to do it 'in the right way.'

"The Senator's speech was full of this might happen, that might happen, I suspect this, I suspect that, he used a phrase 'the landlord may say' a number of times. We don't know what is going to happen if I make this order.

We do know that tenants' rights under the current law are very, very weak. They are vulnerable. We also know the vast majority of our landlords are excellent and we want them to continue being so.

But even some of them are absolutely fed up with this government and ready to chuck the towel in if they get any more monkey business from us.

I'm telling the landlords - we are going to increase tenants' rights, that is a fact, but we are also going to balance that with making things better in the new Residential Tenancy Law, making this better for landlords too.

I am convinced that the Residential Tenancy Law, when we publish it, is going to surprise a lot of people and is going to be welcomed by people. I think it's going to be very reasonable, there's going to be new things in there and we're working our hardest to ensure that happens.

Senator Mezec may be right and all the landlords will behave absolutely brilliantly, they'll understand, we'll slam this in, no consultation, it'll all be fine.

Or my suspicions that this is going to cause trouble for people. I just think it's not a risk worth taking when we're going to do this, probably this time next year or sooner if we can, and try to get tenants who've been there a long time to stay.

We're going to do this, but we're going to do it properly and we're not going to poke the bear and get the reaction you get because who is going to suffer? Vulnerable tenants."

Deputy Labey's amendment was approved by 34 votes to 11.