Five things you should know about the Renters’ Rights Bill.  

Housing is very much on the Labour Party agenda, with Angela Rayner opening the Labour Party conference on Sunday with a string of announcements regarding housing policy. She said that the government will consult on a new Decent Homes Standard for social and private renters and press ahead with Tory legislation, known as Awaab’s law, which sets timescales for social landlords to remedy problems such as damp and mould.

The Renter’ Rights Bill is currently with the House of Commons and whilst there are still many hurdles for the Bill to pass, as Labour have a majority in the House of Commons, the legislation could go through as quickly as next spring, with the reforms being implemented by late summer 2025.

Here are 5 things we know so far about the Renters’ Rights Bill so far:

• Abolishing Section 21s.  

The Bill will remove Section 21, “no-fault” evictions but does also outline a strengthening of Section 8, which will allow landlords to recover a property if they have a legal reason for doing so. Like a Section 21 notice, landlords would need to serve notice to the tenants on the prescribed form with the required notice period. If a tenant doesn’t leave, landlords must go to court and provide evidence. 

• Strengthening Tenants’ Rights. 

They want to standardise the way rent increases are applied by setting a process that must be followed for all tenancies. Once a year, landlords will be able to increase rents up to the market rate (defined as the price that would be achieved for the property as a newly advertised let) by issuing a Section 13 notice which sets out the new rent and gives at least two months’ notice before it takes effect.  To prevent competitive bidding, the Bill will require landlords and letting agents to publish an asking rent for a property, and make it illegal to ask for, encourage, or accept any bids above this price. Flouting these rules could lead to civil penalties of up to £7,000.  

• Pets.  

Whilst the Bill aims to make it easier for tenants to keep pets, there are several caveats. While tenants will get the right to request a pet, landlords will be able to stipulate that tenants have insurance in place to cover potential damages to their property. The Bill doesn't try to pin down all of the possible reasons a landlord could reasonably refuse permission for a pet, so plenty of discretion remains.

• Decent Homes Standards & Awaab’s Law.

Responsible agents already maintain and inspect homes regularly. Issues of damp and mould are often resolved with appropriate heating and ventilation, and by co-operation between agents, landlords and tenants.  Through a Decent Homes Standard and Awaab’s Law the Bill will reinforce the existing good practice already in place for the majority of agents and crack down on the small minority of rogue operators.

• Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman.

The government will introduce a new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman Service, which all private landlords in England with assured or regulated tenancies will be required by law to join, including those who use a managing agent. Tenants will be able to use the service for free, to complain about a landlords’ actions or behaviours. The service will offer fair, impartial and binding resolutions for tenants, and will have powers to compel landlords to issue an apology, provide information, take remedial action, and/or pay compensation. The service will also benefit landlords by resolving tenant-initiated complaints in the quickest and most cost-effective way possible. Landlords will also have access to guidance and support from the ombudsman service to help them improve their complaint handling practices. 

We would like to reiterate that the Renters’ Rights Bill is not current law and we will of course continue to update you on changes as and when they happen.  As always, we are on-hand should you need to discuss anything specific.  



Source:
https://www.propertymark.co.uk/
https://www.goodlord.co/