1) Procedures for evictions due to rent arrears vary significantly between countries in terms of legal requirements, prevention measures, and overall strategies. 2) While some countries have national strategies to prevent evictions, these don't always correspond to lower eviction rates or less complicated processes for tenants. 3) Effective prevention of evictions likely requires a framework with legal protections for tenants, adequate funding, housing assistance services, and sufficient affordable housing supply.

1. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Evictions due to rent arrears
A Comparative Analysis of
Evictions in 14 countries
Susanne Gerull
Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences
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2. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Research Questions
Rent arrears are one of the most
important reasons to be evicted. Comparing 14
European countries I wanted to find out:
Are there differences in
 the problem’s dimension?
 the legal basis?
 the preventive measures?
Are there national strategies to prevent evictions?

3. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Research Design
1. Checking all country reports and
comparative articles provided by FEANTSA &
EJoH-articles using keywords like “rent
arrears”, “evict...” etc.
2. Compilating the findings using a standardised
questionnaire for each country
3. Requesting experts for completion, updates
and comments
4. Analysing and comparing the data

4. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Housing
0,0%
5,0%
10,0%
15,0%
20,0%
25,0%
30,0%
35,0%
40,0%
45,0%
AT BE CZ DK FI FR DE IE NL PL PT ES SE UK
Housing in %
Rented dwellings (% of population) Social rental dwellings (% of housing market
Data from 2009

5. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Housing
0,00%
0,20%
0,40%
0,60%
0,80%
1,00%
1,20%
AT DK FI FR NL PL SE UK
Eviction Rates in %
% of households % of rented dwellings
Numbers of evictions decreased in AT, PL, SE
and increased in FI, FR (available Data 2011)
Data from 2009

6. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Housing: Connections
A statistical computation showed that
 a high rate of rented dwellings does not lead to
a high rate of evictions per households
(r=0,175 / very weak correlation)
 a high %age of social rental dwellings doesn‘t
increase the risk of evictions
(r=0,36 / weak correlation)
The findings have to be interpreted
very carefully because of the few
countries providing data about evictions

7. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Legal Conditions
Legal conditions for an application to court
and a court decision are very different
 1 to 3 months of rent arrears necessary
 In some countries the legal procedure depends on the
type (e. g. in England) or length (e. g. IE) of tenancy
 Only a few countries provide a „protection period“
(regulation of rent arrears makes the notice to quit
legally void), e. g. DE, NL, PT, SE

8. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Evictions
In most countries the procedure of the evictions is
regulated by law. Present at the eviction is usually
 The bailiff, the landlord (or representative), a locksmith, a
removal firm and sometimes the police
Special regulations/policies:
 „Moratoire hivernal“ in France (no evictions in winter)
 Evictions for rent arrears only by providing substitute
accomodation in Poland
 No evictions of children in Sweden

9. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Preventive Measures (1)
 In a lot of countries municipalities has to be
informed when someone is threatened by
eviction: e. g. AT, BE, DK, FI, DE, SE, and UK
(Scotland)
In most of the cases this is regulated by law
 Pro-active support usually is provided e. g. in
AT, FR, DE and NL
Often by NGOs
sometimes only for tenants in social housing (e. g.
BE, CZ)

10. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Preventive Measures (2)
 In some countries public authorities can
regulate rent arrears to avoid evictions,
e. g. in AT, DK, FR, DE, PT and SE
 In some countries this is only possible
 in some regions (BE, ES)
 in special cases (children/disabilities etc.)

11. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Preventive Measures (3)
 7 of 14 surveyed countries have
national strategies incl. preventive measures
(DK, FI, FR, NL, PT, SE, UK), 1 country only on
local levels (ES)
 Preventive strategies are mostly a part of a wider
strategy against homelessness and include e. g.
 The aim of a decrease of evictions (e. g. NL, SE)
 Regulations for better cooperations (e. g. FI)
 a budget (e. g. DK)

12. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Comprehensive Findings  Procedures and the process in general are complicated
for the tenants in almost all countries
 „Good practice“ doesn‘t mean to have a strategy (AT, PL)
 Strong legal protection of tenants and people in need
doesn‘t lead to a strategy avoiding evictions (DE)
 „National programme“ doesn‘t mean sufficient
possibilities to avoid evictions (DK)
 National programmes don‘t lead necessarily to reduced
numbers of evictions (FI, FR)
Differences among the surveyed countries are
significant but causal connections ill-advised

13. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
Conclusions 
1. Preventive strategies have to include
 A legal framework protecting tenants and people in
need
 A sufficient budget
 Housing advisory and counselling services
 Enough affordable housing
2. Strategies have to be coordinated between the
departments for housing and social affairs
3. Local strategies have to be coordinated within a
national strategy

14. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Housing First. What’s Second?
Berlin, 20th September 2013
References / Support
A list with all (published) references can be requested:
mail@susannegerull.de
Many thanks to:
Assistant for collecting information: Svenja Ketelsen
Experts: Austria: Heinz Schoibl / Renate Kitzmann
Belgium: Pascal De Decker / Thijs Callens Czech: Jiří
Růžička / Dominika Najvert Denmark: Lars Benjaminsen
Finland: Taina Hytönen France: Claire Lévy-Vroelant
Ireland: Eoin O’Sullivan Poland: Magdalena Mostowska
Portugal: Isabel Baptista Sweden: Sten-Åke Stenberg UK:
Nicholas Pleace Other facilitators: Austria: Marc Diebäcker
Germany: Volker Busch-Geertsema FEANTSA: Suzannah
Young