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Nottingham landlords are concerned students leaving the city in their droves will refuse to pay rent for their student properties.

East Midlands Property Owners Group, based in Lenton, which represents around 600 landlords in the city, is trying to come up with solutions that don't leave landlords not being able to pay mortgages.

Concerns have also be raised there will be no powers in place to fight tenants who decide not to pay rent or cause anti-social behaviour as possession orders are ceased until June.

The Government introduced emergency legislation on Wednesday, March 18, preventing tenants from being evicted from their homes during the coronavirus crisis.

Under the new legislation, all new evictions will be suspended and no new possession proceedings will be permitted during the period of national emergency.

Giles Inman, business development manager at EMPO, said: "It is very unprecedented. We have never had anything like it in comparison in the past. There is a lot of uncertainty and anxiety at the moment.

"We are getting students contacting landlords saying they are moving back to their parental homes and some of the students are saying 'do they need to pay any more rent?'

"Most of Lenton, 85 percent, is predmoninatly students.

"A tenancy agreement is a legal contract. If the landlord pursues the student, well, we do not want to go down that road.

"It is all about being in it together."

He said measures need to be place to help those who lose their job or can't work after being hit by the coronavirus, but at the moment, the system is open to abuse.

Mr Inman said: "If a tenant does not pay rent there is nothing you can do. You are dead in the water as a landlord.

"What we are concerned about is the potential abuse, that people might say they are ill when in fact they are not.

"There is nothing the landlord can do in evicting the tenant because the courts will not provide them with a possession order.

"The way the proposals are right now it can be subject to a lot of abuse.

"A lot of landlords have mortgages to pay."

He is hoping tenants and landlords can work together through these difficult times.

Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has decided to move all face-to-face teaching online as "a precautionary measure" against the coronavirus outbreak sweeping the UK.

The university has said all teaching will move online on Monday, March 23.

International and UK students at the University of Nottingham have been asked to return to their permanent homes "if they can" to avoid "unnecessary contact with others".

The institution has made the announcement as it prepares to also move to online learning from Monday, March 23.

The Residential Landlords Association and the National Landlords Association have welcomed the Government's package to support people's income during the virus.

This includes the decision to ensure the Local Housing Allowance is guaranteed to cover at least 30 per cent of market rents in a claimant's area to support tenants and landlords.

They are also glad grants to cover up to 80 per cent of wages, where workers are retained but are unable to work, will sustain tenancies.