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Renter protections closer as Bill progresses through Parliament

ended 09. October 2024

The Renters’ Rights Bill returns to Parliament today and will be debated for the first time by MPs as greater security and protections for millions of renters comes a step closer.

The Second Reading comes less than a month since the Bill was first introduced and within the first 100 days in office, signalling the government’s determination to get this in the statute book as soon as possible. 

The Bill delivers on the government’s manifesto commitment to overhaul the experience of renters, banning Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions across new and existing tenancies at the same time, immediately tackling one of the leading causes of homelessness.

This will give 11 million private renters immediate security and assurance so they can stay in their homes for longer and build lives in their communities.  

It will also clamp down on unfair rent increases and extend the Decent Homes Standard and Awaab’s Law to the private sector for the first time, significantly reducing the number of poor-quality privately rented homes and empowering tenants to raise concerns about damp, dangerous and cold homes. Full statement >> here <<.

Newspage asked property and legal experts for their views, below.

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Simon Bridgland
Director at Charwin Private Clients
Renters’ past and present will undoubtedly feel the benefit of the Renters Reform Bill if passed. However, I feel that the renters of the future may wish it hadn’t in parts been born. Whilst the protection it will offer and the standards it will demand would be right by anybody’s expectations, it will come at a cost. Landlords will continue to exit the market because of the pressures and increased cost demands, and tenant demand will still be there, which will then go on to drive up costs for the end user, shooting them in the one foot they have left to stand on. Sure, it will make more property become available if landlords sell up. But if you think renters will simply snap up the property entering the market then you're mistaken. If they could, they would already been homeowners, not tenants. The steady march to make landlordism unfashionable goes on and we will see an exodus in the main, of dinner table landlords, which will I’m sure hurt the very tenants this bill seeks to protect.
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Stephen Perkins
Managing Director at Yellow Brick Mortgages
Whilst everyone wants to see a clampdown on rogue landlords, too many decent landlords are going to be caught in the cross-fire of this bill and many will simply decide to leave the battlefield after years of onslaught from successive government policies and regulations. Less available properties to rent will not help the current rental and housing crisis and will simply see rents go up further.
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Christian Fox
Barrister at Christian Fox
There is a lot of misunderstanding about this among landlords who see the bill as some kind of doomsday scenario for property owners. The reality is, the main reasons for wanting a property back from a tenant are already, and remain, available. Section 21 has only benefited lawyers. The proliferation of cases where the wrong bit of paper has been served at the wrong time, thereby rendering the section 21 notice invalid has choked up the court system and delayed properties being returned to owners. In some ways this issue is a smoke screen. Where both landlords and tenants should be looking is to the woeful lack of funding for local authorities to provide council housing. It is frequently their advice to a destitute tenant that they must stay put until they are evicted (at the landlord's expense), else they will be deemed intentionally homeless and not assisted. It is a disgrace that removes tenant dignity and landlord confidence in the rental sector.
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Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
There is certainly a bit of common sense in the Bill. For landlords that do the job properly already, it's business as usual and the rogues should be exposed as a result. There are some parts that really do need careful thought, though, such as the longer notice periods in an already broken court system and the forgotten student HMO sector. The new legislation will come at a cost and, unshockingly, after the financial battering that landlords have recently had, it will be another cost passed onto tenants so rents will no doubt rise further and supply contract. There is a lot of work to be done but Labour should be sure to not take any glory for picking up what the Tories started. They have both been warned of the unintended consequence by multiple sources. They seem to be ignoring the advice. With an upcoming CGT overhaul forecast in the Budget, too, this is Hurricane Labour brewing.