The Renter’s Rights Bill, first introduced to Parliament in September 2024, and is expected to make significant changes to private renting. The bill aims to rebalance the rights and responsibilities of landlords by providing a stronger legal framework for evictions, providing more stability for long-term tenants, addressing affordability and improving standards.
The bill has now reached the House of Lords for its second reading and a number of amendments have been made which private landlords need to be aware of. Those amendments include:
- Pets: the bill prevents landlords from making a blanket ban on pets. Landlords must consider a tenants request to keep a pet in the rented property and they cannot unreasonably refuse. To support landlords in this change, they can require tenants to obtain pet insurance to cover any property damage.
- Rent in advance: it has been determined in the third reading at the House of Commons that landlords can only charge up to one month’s rent in advance. If a tenant offers to pay more, it would be considered unlawful for the landlord to accept it.
- Private rental sector database: a new database will be created to help landlords understand their legal obligations and provide better information to tenants when entering into a tenancy agreement. Landlords are required to register with the database. If landlords fail to register themselves or their properties, the local authority will have power to issue a penalty.
- Guarantors: if a tenant dies whilst in occupation of a rented property, the guarantor will no longer be liable for the rent after death. Landlords can still reclaim costs accrued before death.
- Rent reviews: restricted to one increase per year with two months’ notice required.
In terms of recovering possession of rented property, the no fault ‘section 21’ notice will be abolished meaning tenants will have greater security and stability. Landlords will need to serve a section 8 notice to recover possession and follow the standard eviction process which includes a possession hearing.
The bill has introduced new section 8 eviction grounds, both mandatory and discretionary. For mandatory grounds, the Court must award the landlord possession if the ground is successfully proven. For discretionary grounds, the Court will consider whether eviction is reasonable even if it is proven.
Currently when a landlord is looking to sell a property and the tenant is not at fault, a section 21 notice will be used. As section 21 notices are being abolished, a new mandatory ground ‘1A’ has been introduced to allow landlords to recover possession when selling their rented property. This ground cannot be relied on in the first 12 months of a new tenancy, and it attracts a notice period of 4 months. Once a property has been repossessed for this reason, it cannot then be re-let on a short term basis by the landlord.
Another change worth noting is to mandatory ground 8 for rent arrears. Currently, landlords can recover possession under this ground when a tenant has at least 2 month’s rent arrears at the time notice is served and at the time of the possession hearing. The bill is going to increase the period of rent arrears to 3 months.
The bill could receive Royal Assent as early as April 2025 so it is important that private landlords understand their obligations under the bill.
If you require any advice or assistance in connection with private renting possession then please feel free to contact a member of our Dispute Resolution team of specialists based in Bishop Auckland and Darlington.
