Renters Rights Bill Progresses with New Proposals

Labour’s Renters Rights Bill is undergoing changes on its journey through Parliament.

The Bill runs to over 200 pages and is likely to swell even more before hitting the statute book.

Unfortunately for landlords and letting agents, most of the amendments give tenants increased rights and reinforce the government’s view that privately renting homes is a social service rather than a business or investment.

The Bill has now passed the committee stage in the House of Commons, where MPs can amend the various clauses.

Next, probably on January 14, the bill will go to the Commons for debate as the report stage.

Amendments Trigger Concerns

After that, the Bill has a third reading in the Commons and passes to the House of Lords for debate and amendment.

Several significant amendments are proposed, although the only one that is reasonably certain is the ban on rent in advance. Causes for landlord concern arising from the proposed amendments include:

• A cap on tenant advance rent payments to no more than one month’s rent.
• Fees for landlords joining the national landlord database and new redress scheme going up. The basic cost is expected to be £28.58 for a property to be included in the database for three years and £6 for a landlord for each property to join the redress scheme.
• A new tenant fee ban offence for landlords and letting agents for inviting, encouraging or accepting offers to pay more than the advertised rent for a home, which effectively outlaws bidding wars.
• A ban on landlords agreeing to tenancies more than six months in advance, stopping students and landlords from booking properties.
• Guarantors are proposed to be banned under specified circumstances, including if a deposit has been taken or the tenant is on Universal Credit. Furthermore, guarantors would no longer be liable for any rent due following a tenant’s death.
• Tenants can demand rent repayment order compensation from superior landlords even if the landlord has not received any rent from them.
• Fixed-term tenancies will run for at least 21 years instead of seven years.
• The use of tenancy terms and conditions as a defence against house in multiple occupation (HMO) licensing offences could be scrapped. For example, a landlord arguing that a tenancy agreement prevents tenants from subletting and making a property an HMO would no longer be a defence if the landlord takes no further steps to resolve the issue.

Scrapping Section 21 Evictions

Other measures in the Bill include scrapping Section 21 no-fault evictions.

The government says: “The bill will improve the system for the 11 million private renters and 2.3 million landlords in England. It will give renters much greater security and stability so they can stay in their homes for longer, build lives in their communities, and avoid the risk of homelessness.

“Reform of the sector is long overdue, and we will act where previous governments have failed. While most landlords provide a good service, the private rented sector currently provides the least affordable, poorest quality and most insecure housing of all tenures.”

Click here for the latest updated version of the Renters Rights Bill.