Election Special - The Housing Manifestos
With a little over a week to go before the country goes to the polling stations, there is a great deal of scrutiny over what much that has been published by the political parties in order to sway voters to choose them. Housing is one of the key points on all parties’ agenda and at the forefront of homeowners, investors both individual and institutional, first time buyer, landlords, tenants and those living within social housing accommodation.
Neither the Conservatives or Labour have put forward exactly how they’re going to solve all the obstacles that have stopped Governments hitting their housing targets over the last 30 years.
Renters Reform - What will this mean for the PRS?
A lot of discussion has taken place since June 2022 when the government announced that the PRS would be Levelled Up, but what does that actually mean in practice and how will the Renters Reform Bill impact landlords, tenants and the PRS?
Firstly, one of the key points to consider is to ignore the trade press and national press who lead with headlines and never factor in the detail.
Abolishing Section 21
A lot of emphasis has been placed on ‘no fault Evictions’ when in fact what should actually be referred to is the service of notice to obtain vacant possession’. There is no way of evicting a tenant just by serving a section 21 and to clarify, the eviction process takes a lot longer than a mere two months.
The Section is the first step to a landlord gaining possession but with ‘no reason’ given, therefore the abolition of this notice will mean that the landlord will be required to state ‘grounds’ (reasons) should they wish to regain possession. This would require Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 (1996) to be amended.