King’s Speech presents Renters’ Rights Bill

The highly anticipated King’s Speech on 17th July under the Labour government did not contain any real surprises for the Private Rented except for the fact that what was the Renters Reform Bill kicked into the long grass when the General Election was announced, has now been renamed the Renters’ Rights Bill - emphasis on the first 2 words.

The King’s Speech set out the government's priorities and proposed legislative programme for the next Parliamentary session.

While acknowledging that responsible landlords had made a great contribution to the private rented sector, the government believes that there should be reform with regards to the rights of landlords and tenants. The Renters' Rights Bill will:

  • Abolishing Section 21 - Since 2019 when this was first discussed concerns have been raised over how there is a total lack of understanding that a section 21 requires a tenant to give the landlord vacant possession of the dwelling and that this is NOT an eviction notice and never has been. One must also take into consideration the fact that in abolishing section 21, other things must change. The courts must be reformed to handle the existing backlog, more judges and bailiffs must be recruited as well as the process of accelerated possession being removed from the court process.

    With the section 21 notice no longer in place, section 8 will be the only option available to a landlord who wishes to take back possession of their property, however, the section 8 notice can only be relied upon if the landlord has grounds to serve the notice.

    The unfortunate thing is that 5 years ago trade press and the national press lead with the headline that no fault evictions had to go, without properly explaining that this process could take years to implement, instead of scaremongering landlords into selling up.

  • Strengthen tenants' rights and protections. Measures will include empowering tenants to challenge excessive rent increases where the real purpose is to force out the tenants, and ending rental bidding wars.

  • Give tenants the right to request a pet. Landlords cannot unreasonably refuse consent, however, tenants will need to comply to a set of requirements

  • Apply a "Decent Homes Standard" to the private rented sector to ensure homes are safe, secure and hazard-free.

  • Apply "Awaab's Law" to the private rented sector, setting out clear timeframes within which landlords must take action to make homes safe.

  • Enable creation of a digital private rented sector database that brings together key information for landlords, tenants and councils.

  • Support quicker and cheaper resolution of disputes. This will include a new Landlord Ombudsman to provide impartial and binding resolutions.

  • Stopping discrimination against tenants on benefits and those who have children. This is not new nor a surprise that the Labour government would introduce restrictions against refusing to rent to those in receipt of benefits. However, how will this be dealt with by mortgage lenders and referencing companies?

  • Local Authorities to be given stronger enforcement powers – one of the biggest issues is that currently councils do not have the manpower to enforce existing legislation against landlords who continuously flout the law. What plans does the government have to a. Provide consistency across the whole country and b. Ensure that councils play their part in properly understanding the private rented sector as opposed to telling tenants who have been served notice to stay put until they have been evicted by a bailiff.

    For the full version of the King’s Speech click on the link - Oral statement to Parliament The King's Speech 2024

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