My tenant owes £15,000 in rent, but I can't get them out of the property

Rongmala became an "accidental" landlord when her disabilities meant she could no longer live alone.

She moved in with her children and rented out her south London maisonette.

But last year, her tenant stopped paying rent.

Rongmala, 57, eventually sent an eviction notice and began court proceedings, but several months later the tenant is around £15,000 in rent arrears and refusing to leave.

Court delays are holding up the removal of the tenant, leaving Rongmala feeling "broken".

Some landlords are worried delays like this could become worse under the government's new Renters' Rights Act, which comes into force on 1 May in England.

The new law - which is the biggest overhaul of the private rented sector in a generation - aims to give renters more security and includes a ban on "no fault evictions" and limits to rent increases.

Rongmala says financial problems resulting from her lost rental income are causing her depression. "My children are helping me for everything, but I don't want that," she says.

Since her tenant stopped paying rent, she has had to pay £2,500 for boiler repairs as well as service charges on the estate and a mortgage on the property.

Although a judge awarded a court order for Rongmala to take possession of the property, only court-appointed bailiffs can remove a tenant. The family has been told this could take up to 11 months.

Rongmala's son, Marouf, says the toll it is taking on his mum is "heartbreaking" and adds that she's "helpless" navigating a clogged-up court system.

But dozens of renters have told the BBC about significant difficulties they face, too.

Rosie and her friends - young professionals who were at a protest in London earlier this month - said they had had to move "dozens of times" and that some people were paying "70% of their salaries" in rent.

Fran Brown, 58, told BBC Your Voice that she had had to move properties five times since 2017 and said she is now facing another rent increase. She said she felt she was "at the mercy of the landlord changing their mind".

Another renter, James, said he had received a "terrifying" eviction notice at the end of February, and that he was struggling to find a home for himself, his wife and two children.

He said it was "really tough to face the reality of needing to pack up our entire lives that we've spent 10 years building and put it somewhere else on such short notice on demand".

Currently, under a so-called Section 21 notice, a landlord can evict a tenant without giving a reason - and with just eight weeks' notice. The new legislation will restrict landlords to a handful of legal reasons for evictions, including wanting to move back in, anti-social behaviour by tenants or persistent rent arrears.

The interim director of The Renters Reform Coalition, Clara Collingwood, said she was thrilled and that the change would make a "huge difference".

But landlords say they fear the system will make it harder to remove problematic tenants.

According to figures from the Ministry of Justice, private landlords currently wait 26 weeks - a median figure - between bringing a claim and being able to repossess a property. Ten years ago, it was approximately 16 weeks.

Data from the National Residential Landlords' Association suggests the average rent loss per property is more than £12,000 nationally, and more than £19,000 in London per property.

Section 21 evictions are a "paper-based" administrative process, according to Chris Norris, policy director of the National Residential Landlords' Association - but under the new rules landlords will have to have a court hearing if a tenant challenges an eviction.

A government spokesperson said the reforms would "reduce pressure on the courts in the long-term, but to support them now we are recruiting up to 1,000 judges and tribunal members across all courts and tribunals this year".

They said the Act would give tenants "much needed and long overdue" security in their homes.

'Ever-increasing regulation'

Former engineer Keith Taylor, who rents out three properties, is convinced the Act will make life much harder for people like him.

He says some tenants have left around £8,000 in damage at his properties and that the upcoming law is making landlords "very nervous".

Taylor believes more will sell up because changes to the way landlords are taxed, combined with "ever-increasing regulation", won't be worthwhile.

Greg Tsuman, director at Martyn Gerrard estate agents in London, says landlords have been selling up for the last decade, but it has accelerated over the past 12 months.

Landlord Action, a legal service for landlords, and tenants' union Acorn have both reported a rise in Section 21 "no fault" evictions. Section 21 cases made up 22% of Acorn's work with tenants in 2024 - and this has risen to to 31% so far in 2026.

While Norris, of the National Residential Landlords' Association, doesn't think there will be an "exodus" from the market as a result of the Renters Rights' Act, he does think some landlords may be more "picky" about who they rent to.

While the Act will make it illegal to discriminate against people with children, or those on benefits, ultimately a landlord will still have autonomy over who they rent their property to.

Not all landlords are negative about the reforms, however.

Rick Gannon has 70 properties worth more than £10m and believes the new laws will make things fairer for tenants and "weed out bad landlords".

"I think it's the biggest change we've seen in this industry for many, many years and I think most of it is for the better."

Rongmala and Marouf say they "don't want tenants to have to struggle".

But they say small or accidental landlords like her "are facing issues as well" and the government should be trying to help, rather than "making things harder".