An E-Petition on www.number10.gov.uk, the official website of the Prime Minister's Office, which pleaded ‘give more rights to landlords to evict bad tenants’ attracted less than 20 signatures.

The petition submitted by Asif Mirza said: “There are many good tenants but occasionally you come across a tenant who deliberately rents a property then stops paying any rent.

“The legal system to evict bad tenants is a farce. Taking months to get the eviction (sic). Us landlords take a lot of stick because people assume we are ‘loaded’ but most of us are just hardworking people trying to improve our futures.

“From start to finish it should take no longer than six weeks to get the tenants out. The employment of private bailiffs should be allowed. The councils should take more responsibility for them but they adopt this attitude that its not their problem, they don’t have to find them anywhere to live until they get a bailiffs eviction date and then they'll re-house them on the morning of the eviction.

“The law is a farce and we the landlords need some rights too.”

The deadline to sign up to the petition was 24 January 2009

• Matthew Wyles, Group Distribution Director of Nationwide Building Society, has been appointed chairman of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) for 2009.

Martijn van der Heijden, Head of Mortgages at HSBC, and John Heron, Managing Director of Paragon Mortgages Ltd, have been appointed as deputy chairmen.

Looking to the year ahead, Wyles said: “The UK mortgage market will be facing some uniquely challenging trading conditions during 2009 but the lenders are resolutely committed to working together to address them.

“Through the CML, we will be acting collectively to support the government and the financial authorities as the economy edges through recession towards recovery.
“The CML's priorities for this year are to help minimise repossessions, improve our collective ability to fund the mortgages our customers want and to rebuild confidence in the housing market.”