Housing law changes to boost eviction powers but stop landlords arbitrarily upping rents are set to be brought in during the next Parliamentary session.

Housing Minister Nelson Bascome said he hoped the changes will encourage home owners to get them rented out, safe in the knowledge that they could kick out troublesome tenants.

He said: "We would hope more landlords will open up their properties to more tenants. There are around 200 such units on the market right now.

"It means we won't have to develop so much in a Country which is rapidly moving toward overcrowding.'' Development and Opportunities Minister Terry Lister, who is handling the law changes through the Department of Consumer Affairs, said amendments could be in place by mid-summer which would ensure fairness all round.

Mr. Lister said: "We would hope to make things easier so there is a clear understanding of each person's responsibility.

"Sometimes it is difficult or confusing to evict people who should be evicted. It takes a long time. We want to speed up the process.

"Currently landlords have to go back and forth to court to prove this and to prove that. Hopefully, soon, they will only have to go to court once.

"We can give landlords the confidence that their situation will be properly dealt with.'' Mr. Lister agreed that the current state of affairs acted as a deterrent for would-be landlords.

He said: "Sometimes landlords aren't protected and get into a difficult situation so they won't rent houses out.'' And he said moves would be made to make sure good tenants had a greater sense of security.

"Unless the tenant has a lease, landlords can increase rents,'' noted Mr.

Lister. "That's not very fair.

"Things like that need to be regularised so both the landlord and the tenant know where they stand, that there is a level playing field.

"We are trying to ensure that if people request a lease, they can get it. We are moving toward a situation where leases will be mandatory.

"Just about every landlord who works with an agency has a lease. We want to ensure private landlords use leases to the same extend as agencies.'' The proposals received a skeptical response from People's Coalition for Affordable Housing chairwoman Rosemary Pedro .

She said not enough was being done to help rent defaulters mend their ways and that guidelines given to them were sparse and of little use to the illiterate.

Ms Pedro said: "Unless we have better programmes than the current guidelines, then people are always going to be falling into problems.

"But evicting people -- is that helping the situation? It will end up in another emergency situation for the Bermuda Housing Corporation to deal with.''