The Renters’ Rights Bill was turned into an act this week, being granted Royal Assent on Monday 27 October.
While the law has officially been passed, the roadmap for rule implementation has yet to be announced by government, who said they would add clarifications in the “coming weeks”.
A tenant-first Act?
After the bill’s passing, campaign group the Renters Reform Coalition declared ‘BREAKING NEWS: We’ve won!’ – signifying that the Act is generally seen as more of a win for tenants than landlords or agents.
The latter two groups typically counter this by suggesting the fresh Act will result in higher rents, as they account for higher levels of risk being taken on.
However, with tenant affordability being stretched by rising rents in recent years, there are question marks over whether tenants have the capacity to take on any more rent increases.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “For too long, millions of renters have lived at the mercy of rogue landlords or insecure contracts, with their futures hanging in the balance. We’re putting an end to that.
“A secure home isn’t just bricks and mortar – it’s the foundation for opportunity, safety, and a better life. No child should grow up without one.”
Section 21
The Section 21 eviction ban has been one of the most talked about aspects of the new Act, which will force landlords to evict tenants only when they have a reason. It’s thought it will come into force in mid-2026.
The challenge with this, as it stands, is landlords would be forced to go through the sluggish court system, where it can take a year from a tenant falling into arrears before a non-paying tenant is removed, given the cost of escalating cases to the High Court and getting a court-appointed bailiff.
Allison Thompson, national lettings managing director at LRG, said: “Based on current indications, we expect key provisions such as the abolition of Section 21 and the transition to periodic tenancies to take effect in early to mid-2026, with elements such as the national landlord database and Decent Homes Standard to follow later.”
Abolishing Section 21 has been talked about for six years, as you have to go back four Prime Ministers before finding the one who first announced that it would be abolished “immediately” – Theresa May.
The benefit for tenants is without Section 21 evictions being an option, they don’t need to fear being evicted in retaliation if they complain about the condition of a property.
Landlords will still be able to evict tenants when they break the tenancy agreement, for example by not paying the rent for three months, or committing antisocial behaviour.
They can also serve an eviction notice to sell or move into their property, though they aren’t allowed to re-let the property in this situation for 12 months.
Scott Clay, director at Together said: “The removal of Section 21 or ‘no fault’ evictions could now trigger a swathe of unjust cases being overlooked or ignored, causing costly and time draining situations for legitimate landlords.
“Without a clear roadmap on how the reforms will be rolled out – which has dubiously been promised in the ‘coming weeks’ – the potential impact to housing activity is in limbo until we know more. What we must avoid is more houses being left empty for months on end, worsening rather than improving our housing crisis.”
Periodic tenancies
The Renters’ Rights Act means periodic tenancies will be the norm, meaning they will operate on a rolling basis rather than contracts running for one or two years.
To look at how this will affect the market you can look at Scotland, which introduced rolling contracts in 2017.
These tenancies enable tenants to terminate their agreement with two months’ notice, meaning landlords will have to be more on-hand when it comes to finding a new tenant.
For landlords meanwhile they need to give tenants four months’ notice, while they cannot serve an eviction with a view to moving or selling in the first 12 months of a tenancy. Clearly tenants are therefore granted more flexibility than landlords.
Scott Goldstein, property disputes partner at law firm Payne Hicks Beach, said: “This considerably increases the freedom of tenants to end their tenancies if their circumstances change, but it will lead to yet greater uncertainty for landlords faced with the prospect of losing their rental stream before they are able to find a suitable replacement tenant.”
Periodic tenancies are generally seen as a bad thing for letting agents, who will lose a significant revenue stream in the form of tenancy renewals.
Students
The introduction of periodic tenancies could also make landlords less keen to let one and two-bedroom properties to students, given that they can no longer reclaim their properties at the end of the academic year.
HMO landlords with three or more beds can use the Ground 4A Exception, which enables them to regain possession of their property with four months’ notice. For this to take place the tenancy needs to be agreed at least six months before it starts.
There are separate rules for tenants in purpose-built student accommodation, applying to companies and university-owned providers, rather than individual landlords. In those cases landlords can give tenants a notice period of just two weeks.
No more blanket pet bans
Landlords cannot prevent a tenant from keeping a pet unless they have a “good reason”.
There were attempts to enable landlords to demand tenants take out pet insurance, or pay an extra deposit to keep a pet in the House of Lords, but they were all quashed by the government, effectively meaning landlords are being forced to take on this extra risk of property damage.
On the upside, pets generally lower stress and anxiety, so a more pet-friendly rental system could mean a healthier set of tenants across the England and Wales.
Campaigning organisation AdvoCATS has given the new Renters Rights Act a lukewarm reception, claiming the new legislation will be significantly less effective in increasing the number of pet friendly landlords than it could have been.
Jen Berezai, its founder said: “This huge piece of new legislation had the potential to make renting with pets easier and fairer for both tenants and landlords alike, and that opportunity has been squandered.
“Here’s just one example: a PRS (Private Rental Sector) professional who had convinced over 2000 landlords to alter their stance on pets on the understanding that they’d be able to ask for pet damage insurance, but that premise is no more.
“A minimum of 2000 pets taken out of rescue. Scale that up across the country, it would have been the answer to every rescue’s prayers.
“Pet damage insurance offered a practical, affordable and budget friendly solution to tenants wanting to rent with pets, which was also popular with landlords wary of potential damage costs.
“We were bitterly disappointed that such a common-sense way of persuading more landlords to be pet friendly was taken off the Bill.”
Other changes:
· The introduction of a private rented sector database and Ombudsman.
· The launch of new offences and criminal penalties for landlords.
· Limiting advance rent payments: Landlords will only be allowed to ask for one month’s rent in advance.
· All homes will have to meet a Decent Homes Standard, though it’s not expected to be implemented until as far away as 2035, as the government plans to give the sector time to cope with new minimum energy efficiency rules introduced in 2030.