Entire London apartment block to be evicted

Less than three weeks before Christmas, every resident in an apartment block in south-east London has been ordered to leave their home.

"I feel lost," said Nicole Ka. "I'm trying to make Christmas nice, make things as normal as possible but this isn't normal. I don't want court proceedings."

Ms Ka is a single mother and one of 150 residents at Vive Living in Deptford who have been served a Section 21 notice.

Aitch Group, which owns the building, said tenants were asked to leave to facilitate refurbishments, and added nobody had been told to leave before Christmas.

Ms Ka's flat on the second floor is full of Christmas decorations. Her three-year-old son has sat his two elves by the television.

"My son needs to go to school next year but I don't know where I'll be living to do the school admission forms," she said.

All 83 flats in the building on Childers Street received their notices over December, each with a different story.

Freya Volk must leave by 1 March. She found out hours after signing her contract.

"I went through referencing, signed the paperwork, transferred my deposit and the same day my new flatmate was served an eviction notice," she said.

"I've lived in London for 10 years, it's always been hard to find a place, but it's never been this hard."

A Section 21 means the landlord wants you to leave and does not need to provide a reason for eviction. They are sometimes called "no-fault" notices. A tenant may be able to challenge it and stay in the property, but they may have to pay court costs.

A spokesperson for Aitch Group said a Section 21 notice had been issued to tenants at the Vive Living development to "facilitate the refurbishment of the building".

"The tenants have been given two months' notice, as a minimum, in accordance with their tenancy agreements."

They said no one had been told to leave before Christmas and had "facilitated" early access to tenant deposits to help with relocation costs and sourcing alternative accommodation within the area.

They added: "The building has been intensively occupied since it opened over seven years ago.

"It is a multi-million-pound refurbishment with works being done internally to apartments, communal areas, and amenities. These works wouldn't require any planning permission. Aitch Group are currently expecting the works to take six to nine months."

Kate Howe, who has lived in the property since February 2021, said she took issue with refurbishment being given as the reason for the evictions.

"The building was newly refurbished in April 2017, so I don't believe that this is true.

"Collectively we want to stop it, as well as get the situation out publicly as far and wide as we can," she said.

"This is just the beginning. Section 21 is being outlawed for a reason and it's going to keep happening until that goes into affect," Ms Howe added.

"A lot of people are going to be in a lot of trouble."

Section 21 is due to be banned in the government's Renters' Rights Bill.

According to figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the number of section 21 evictions being issued has increased.

The MoJ reported 8,425 households were served with the notices from July to September this year, the highest number in eight years.

In Deptford, affected residents gathered in the cafe at the base of their building to discuss their contract and their rights with the council.

Cafe manager and tenant Paulo served coffee and cake to them as he also anxiously waited for his name to be called.

"I'll lose my home, I'll lose my business, I'll lose everything," he said.

"This is all we have."

Sitting in the corner Will Cooper, Lewisham Council's cabinet member for housing, was periodically crossing names off a handwritten list before calling the next tenant to his table.

"Renters need to know their rights," he said.

"There's a worry that in the next six months we will see more landlords using Section 21s.

"As a council we have 11,000 people on the housing waiting list, we have 3,000 households in temporary accommodation, we are fighting budgets every single year.

"This situation only makes that situation worse."

The government said good landlords would have nothing to fear from the Renter's Rights Bill.

A spokesperson for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "The Renters' Rights Bill will introduce a transformative new tenancy system, including immediately ending Section 21 'no fault' evictions for all existing and new tenants at the same time.

"The Bill ensures landlords have robust grounds for possession where there is good reason to take their property back."

Kamelia Yotava came down to the cafe from the third floor.

She stood frustrated by a printer trying to get a copy of her contract ahead of her meeting.

"Emotionally this is a big stress," she said. "I've started to lose my hair, which I'm ashamed to say.

"I always had long healthy hair; it's now coming out every five minutes, it's not normal."

Every resident has been given their own date to leave by. Ms Yotava's is 21 February.

While this mass eviction will be staggered over the coming months, Ms Yotava said moving on, especially over the Christmas period would be tough.

"It's not humane what they are doing," she said.

"Instead of spending time with family and enjoying the holidays, people need to stress about moving.

"There's not many houses available and now they're going to put 150 people on the market looking for houses, it's going to make it even harder."

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