The Renters’ Rights Bill - Why preparing for change is key to Minimising Risk
I have been decidedly quiet on LinkedIn for the last 4 or 5 days to reflect and take stock of what is happening in the PRS, and to be honest, rest my eyes from all the reading I have been doing over the last 7 months – well more if we factor in the Bill from the previous government.
Research, reading, analysing, interpreting, formatting courses, drafting questions, drafting answers, writing blogs, attending legal seminars & courses, speaking at events, delivering webinars & courses are all part of the remit and require planning. The last time my colleagues and I encountered this volume of work was with the introduction of the Housing Act 2004. I had just embarked on my career in the PRS and sat back whilst my colleagues and barrister / mentor / friend / oracle did the heavy lifting.
Home Buying & Selling
Major new plans to modernise home buying and selling to save people time and money and further measures to improve the lives of leaseholders
Millions of people are set to benefit from improvements to the way homes are bought and sold, saving them both time and money by helping stop property transactions from falling through.
On the 9th February, the government announced that it will modernise the way the process works to bring down current delays of almost five months. One of the key reasons the buying and selling process can be long and frustrating is a lack of digitalisation and join up in the sector, which is why the government is opening up key property information, ensuring this data can be shared between trusted professionals more easily, and driving forward plans for digital identity services to slash transaction times.
Awaab's Law and Social Housing
The Government has announced the forthcoming implementation of Awaab's Law, which will take effect for the social housing sector from October 2025. Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister, confirmed that:- “We intend to act as quickly as possible to bring all relevant hazards within the scope of new legal requirements, but to ensure its effective implementation we will implement Awaab’s Law through a phased approach.”
House of Lords concludes 2nd Reading of the Renters’ Rights Bill
Yesterday 4th February 2025 saw the 2nd Reading of the Renters’ Rights Bill. We knew it would be a significant and crucial milestone in the journey of the Bill.
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Opened the proceedings by stating :”The private rental system needs to change. It currently provides the least affordable, poorest quality and most insecure housing of all tenures. The insecurity it engenders creates uncertainty in the lives of tenants and allows good landlords to be undercut by the minority of rogues and chancers. In short, the 11 million private renters and the 2.3 million landlords across England are being failed. The Renters’ Rights Bill brings forward the most significant changes to the sector for nearly 40 years. The Bill will strengthen the security of tenure for tenants; ensure that they are paying a fair rent; guarantee a minimum standard that they can expect from a property; provide new robust avenues to redress; and more.”
What followed was just over 4 hours of debate from Peers who presented questions put to them from parties with a vested interest in the PRS. Each Peer declared their interests, a great number, unsurprisingly, are landlords.