Renters’ Rights Bill — what landlords need to know

The Renters’ Rights Bill — which has now been published and received its first parliamentary reading — is set to spark radical changes to housing law.

Here, Partner Jo Morton outlines the incoming changes that registered provider landlords must be aware of.

What is the Renters’ Rights Bill?

The Renters’ Rights Bill is sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It’s described as “A Bill to make provision changing the law about rented homes, including provision abolishing fixed term assured tenancies and assured shorthold tenancies; imposing obligations on landlords and others in relation to rented homes and temporary and supported accommodation; and for connected purposes”.

While the Bill is in a revised form from what we saw in the Renters’ Reform Bill under the previous Government, it carries many of the same themes while introducing some new things.

Significant changes to housing law

At 226 pages, the Bill is lengthy and makes some significant changes to housing law.

These include: 

• Abolishing fixed term tenancies (s.1).
• Providing that all assured tenancies shall be periodic tenancies, with a rental period not exceeding one month (s.1).
• Abolishing assured shorthold tenancies (s.2).
• Introducing new grounds for possession (schedule 1), including where: 
• the landlord or landlord’s spouse, partner or family member requires the dwelling as their only or principal home
• the landlord wants to sell, grant a lease of more than 21 years or grant an assured tenancy pursuant to a rent-to-buy agreement
• a superior lease ends 
• there was supported accommodation and the support has ceased.
• Changing some other existing grounds for possession (for example, Ground 8 will require 13 weeks or three months of rent arrears instead of the current eight weeks’ or two months’ worth).
• Requiring section 13 notices to increase rent (s.7).
• Creating a new implied term into assured tenancies that a tenant may keep a pet if they request consent — and such consent shouldn’t be unreasonably withheld (s.10).
• Requiring tenants to serve a two-month notice to quit when terminating an assured tenancy and removing the need for such notice to be in writing (s.19)
• Prohibiting tenancies of more than seven years from being assured tenancies (s.30).

There are some additional provisions for the private rented sector, including in relation to a landlord database and extending Awaab’s law.

Key takeaways for registered provider landlords

There’s no doubt that when this Bill is passed, it’ll represent radical changes to housing law as we know it. 

Some of the most significant changes for registered provider landlords include:

• The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies (including starter tenancies). 
• The requirement for section 13 rent increase notices and no longer being able to rely on contractual provisions in the tenancy agreement.
• The fact that shared ownership leases of more than seven years will no longer be assured tenancies. It’ll therefore be impossible to rely on Richardson v Midland Heart [2008] to seek possession. Possession proceedings will be exclusively a question of forfeiture and landlords will need to be alive to waiver actions (such as acceptance or demand of rent).

All this is likely to require a wide-scale review of current tenancy agreements, policies and procedures and necessitate staff training. 

When will the Renters’ Rights Bill become law?

It’s currently unknown precisely when the Bill will reach its final stage and become law. However, the new Government is clearly keen to push this through and it’s thought that we may see it enacted later this year, with some changes taking immediate effect and others taking effect early- or mid-2025.

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