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What is the Renters' Rights Bill and will it help tenants?

What is the Renters' Rights Bill and will it help tenants?
Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Posted:
15/01/2025
Updated:
15/01/2025

A new law is set to come into force to protect renters, but some landlords are unhappy with the changes.

The government’s landmark Renters’ Rights Bill returned to Parliament this week and passed its third reading, meaning it will now go to the House of Lords.

What is the Bill for?

The Bill aims to provide greater security for renters by including new rules for landlords.

It is described by the government as the’ biggest shake up to the private rented sector for over 30 years, delivering stronger protections and rights to 11 million private renters across the country’.

A series of amendments had been added to the Bill to strengthen its tenant protections and these were passed in a vote by politicians this week.

What will change?

The Renters’ Right Bill proposes to:

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  • Abolish Section 21 evictions and move to a simpler tenancy structure where all assured tenancies are periodic – providing more security for tenants.
  • Ensure possession grounds are fair to both parties, giving tenants more security, while ensuring landlords can recover their property when reasonable.
  • Provide stronger protections against backdoor eviction by ensuring tenants are able to appeal excessive above-market rents which are purely designed to force them out.
  • Introduce a new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman that will provide quick, fair, impartial and binding resolution for tenants’ complaints about their landlord.
  • Create a Private Rented Sector Database to help landlords understand their legal obligations and demonstrate compliance (giving good landlords confidence in their position), alongside providing better information to tenants to make informed decisions when entering into a tenancy agreement.
  • Give tenants strengthened rights to request a pet in the property, which the landlord must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse.
  • Apply the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector.
  • Apply ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the sector, setting clear legal expectations about the timeframes within which landlords must take action to make homes safe where they contain serious hazards.
  • Make it illegal for landlords and agents to discriminate against prospective tenants in receipt of benefits or with children.
  • End the practice of rental bidding by prohibiting landlords and agents from asking for or accepting offers above the advertised rent.
  • Strengthen local authority enforcement by expanding civil penalties, introducing a package of investigatory powers and bringing in a new requirement for local authorities to report on enforcement activity.
  • Strengthen rent repayment orders, doubling the maximum penalty and ensuring repeat offenders have to repay the maximum amount.

Latest changes

In the new amendments to the Bill, the government also plans to cap advance rent payments at one month’s rent. It said that landlords will no longer be able to demand multiple months’ rent in advance as a condition for securing a home.

It added that ‘finding these large sums of cash upfront is impossible for many renters, making it harder for those on lower incomes to get housing and can lock them out of the rental market altogether’.

Another change in law will safeguard bereaved guarantors, who are often family members, from being forced to pay rent for the rest of the tenancy where a loved one has died. This will mean families will not be put in unfair financial hardship during a time of grief .

Deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, Angela Rayner, said: “For far too long working people and families have been at the mercy of a fickle and unfair rental market, faced with outrageous upfront costs, and struggling to find a safe and secure they can truly call home.

“We are delivering on our promise to transform the lives of millions of renters so families can put down roots, allow their children to grow up in secure and healthy homes, and make sure our young people can save for their future.”

Housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, added: “The Bill will modernise the regulation of our country’s insecure and unjust private rented sector, levelling decisively the playing field between landlord and tenant.

“It will empower renters by providing them with greater security, rights and protections so they can stay in their homes for longer, build lives in their communities and avoid the risk of homelessness.”

Landlord concerns

Many landlords are worried that the new rules will make it harder for them to rent out their homes and there are concerns that some will simply sell up, reducing supply for tenants.

In a letter to the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), a coalition of landlords representatives argued that some of the measures could actually limit options for tenants when it comes to finding a home.

The National Residential Landlords Association, British Property Federation, Propertymark, Goodlord, and Leaders Romans Group are all signatories to the letter which states: “We accept that Section 21 repossessions are ending, and support measures to ensure every rental property is of a decent quality.

“However, the Government’s proposed changes risk making access to rented housing harder for the very people we want to support.

“Limiting rent in advance, combined with frozen housing benefit rates and not enough rental housing will make it all but impossible for those with poor or no credit histories in the UK to prove their ability to sustain tenancies.

“These include international students, workers from overseas and those employed on a short-term or variable basis with an income that fluctuates.

“Cutting off any assurance landlords might seek when renting to those who cannot easily prove their ability to afford a tenancy is neither practical nor responsible. Those who will suffer are those most likely to struggle to pass affordability checks.”