Renters’ (Reform) Bill:

The Renters’ (Reform) Bill (the Bill) was introduced to Parliament on 17 May and it aims to transform the rental housing landscape in England. 

The Bill sets itself the goal of ‘providing safer, fairer, and higher-quality homes’ for the roughly 11 million tenants currently renting across the country. The Government hopes that this ‘once-in-a-generation overhaul’ of housing laws brings several significant, positive changes.

The Bill forms part of the Government’s ‘levelling-up’ strategy and is designed to dovetail with other housing reforms introduced following the Grenfell Tower tragedy (such as the Social Housing Regulation Bill and Building Safety Act). 

One of the principal parts of the Bill is to abolish section 21 ‘no fault evictions’. 

Currently, landlords can give notice under s21 of the Housing Act 1988 to evict tenants after a fixed term tenancy ends if there’s a written contract, or during a ‘periodic’ tenancy. 

This change aims to offer renters greater security as tenants by allowing them the opportunity to challenge substandard landlords without the fear of losing their tenancy. It has been pointed out that although a tenant will not be turfed out if it is not at fault, a landlord has other tools at its disposal to price out a tenant that the Bill does not control.

It is yet to be seen how the full implementation of this protocol will affect tenant and landlord relations where a complaint escalates, but the Bill is designed to work alongside Banning Orders (against criminal, negligent landlords) to ensure that a tenant is better protected.

The Bill, whilst protecting tenants against unscrupulous landlord evictions, aims to strengthen the ability for a rightly-behaved landlord to evict anti-social tenants. Landlords will be able to push for a lawful eviction (and make representations in support of this) on a larger pool of ‘disruptive and harmful activities’ that can lead to eviction. 

The Bill promises to deliver a digital resource for the majority of the eviction process, in an attempt to reduce court delays (particularly backlogged since the pandemic).

The Government’s statement on the Bill includes a promise of a new Ombudsman that will bring ‘quicker and cheaper resolutions to disputes, while a new digital Property Portal will enable landlords to understand their obligations and help tenants make better decisions when signing a new tenancy agreement’.

Further detail of the Ombudsman or the Portal, the remit or each, or how they interact with each other, is yet to be published.

The same Government statement does, however, include a quote from the often acclaimed Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, saying: ‘We have long needed a statutory single private rental Ombudsman - so I’m pleased to see it in the legislative plans. After all, disputes are often between two individuals - landlord and tenant – rather than between companies, so it can be very personal and difficult to sort.  Crucially, it won’t be voluntary, all private landlords will be required to join the Ombudsman, and it will have legal authority to compel apologies, take remedial action and pay compensation.’

The Government is going to bring forward other legislation as part of the Bill which will apply the ‘Decent Homes Standard’ to all of the private rented sector, to disallow landlords from blanket banning renters receiving benefits or with children, and to offer (currently unknown) additional council powers for enforcement.

Another, and for some a very vital, part of the Bill is the new right for any tenant to request that they can keep pets in their rented accommodation homes. Tenancies now can strictly prohibit animals from the outset, but it is proposed that landlords must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse a request. 

In summary then, the intentions of the Bill at this stage can be seen as modernising, with a view to repairing imbalances that have grown to be norms in residential renting. It is not clear, however, what sort of transition is envisaged to the Bill’s new regime, nor what sort of protections either landlords or tenants will be offered in circumstances where works to meet standards require negotiation. This is a time that landlords would be wise to check-in with their portfolio managers, legal advisors and begin looking at next steps.

If you are a renter affected by the changes proposed by this Bill, or if you are a landlord looking for advice on what these statutory changes might mean for you, or even a developer considering plans to build to rent, then please get in touch with us at Hill Dickinson LLP.