The government laid the Renter’s Rights Bill on Wednesday 11 September. This is an initial look at the key highlights in the Bill.

The main outlines of the Rights bill are very similar to those of the previous Renters Reform Bill. Fundamentally, many of the concepts remain unchanged and inevitably, especially given the tight timeline. Much of the text is exactly the same. However, there are important differences, particularly when you start to look at the detail. I am contrasting the two Bills a bit because much of what I have written about the Reform Bill will be applicable to the Rights Bill but I have not spent a lot of time looking at the differences between them because I do not think it is all that valuable (and also I do not have the time!).

When it comes to rental periods, much of the original wording about payment periods has been preserved, but it has also been toughened. Accordingly, it is now impossible to take rent for any period longer than one month, although any shorter period is permissible. Clearly, this will be of concern to anyone who was looking to take rent for 6 months in advance or some similar longer period.

Unsurprisingly, section 21 notices and fixed term tenancies are abolished, as are assured shorthold tenancies. While there will no doubt be people hoping to change that during the course of the Bill's passage through parliament, they will be wasting their time. The long title of the Bill is clear that it is intended to get rid of fixed term tendencies, and so any amendment, the looks to subvert that will simply not be permitted by Parliamentary authorities.

Therefore all residential tenancies that fall within the scope of the Housing Act 1988 (for it will still exist albeit radically altered) will be assured periodic tenancies.

Where any superior lease acts to prevent the creation of assured tenancies with indeterminate terms, then those clauses are of no effect. This will mean that long lease restrictions requiring subletting as an assured shorthold tenancies will be ineffective. Additionally, similar clauses in rent-to-rent agreements that require subletting as an assured shorthold tenancy will be of no effect. More concerningly, any clause requiring the property to be returned with vacant possession will also be ineffective. So landlords who have let their property on rent-to-rent arrangements and are desirous of getting those properties back with vacant possession should think about terminating those arrangements prior to the Bill taking effect.

The only context in which a traditional rent-to-rent arrangement can work under the Bill is where the landlord lets to a housing association or other registered social housing provider as they will be able to obtain vacant possession before returning a property let on a rent-to-rent arrangement.

Tenants will be able to give two months’ notice in writing to leave at any stage. It is not possible to dictate the form of that notice (so they can give it by email) but it is possible to dictate where and who the notice is given to.

Possession

With s21 gone, all possession will be by way of section 8 notices, citing one or more grounds for possession. There are lots of new grounds added and I will be working through these over time.

The key new grounds are much the same as before. There are new grounds for landlords looking to sell and the ground for possession where a landlord wants the property back for their own use is much easier to use.

However, most grounds have longer notice periods. If a landlord wants to sell or move back in themselves the notice period will be four months, far longer than the Reform Bill.

The notice period for ground 7 where a tenant has died and someone else has remained in the property will be two months.

For rent arrears (grounds 8, 10 and 11) which form the bulk of section 8 notices the notice period is increased to four weeks. This is concerning for reasons I set out below.

If there is some other breach of contract the notice period stays at two weeks which is unexpected.

If you mix and match grounds then the longest notice period will apply. The exception to this is ASB possession where the notice period remains zero and this notice period will override all the others.

Turning to the grounds for possession themselves the student ground 4A from the Reform Bill has remained. But it is still messy and hard to use. The ground 8A in the Reform Bill which allowed for possession where a tenant was in arrears three times in three years has been scrapped. I did not think it was all that useful so I do not see that this will matter. What is concerning is that the mandatory ground 8 for rent arrears has been changed. This will require tenants to be in three months of arrears. Coupled with the increase in the notice period to four weeks this means that tenants will be almost four months in arrears before court proceedings even commence. Given that court proceedings remain hopelessly slow with little prospect of improvement this will have landlords owed a year of rent or more in tough arrears evictions. I do not think this is sustainable and the government needs to think this through.

Rent

Rent increases will be annual only by way of a s13 notice to increase to market rent. The notice period will be two months. No agreement on rent increase is allowed unless a notice is served and the landlord and tenant then agree an increase which is less than the sum on the notice. Appeals to the First Tier Tribunal are free and so the FTT is likely to have a lot of work as there is little incentive for a tenant not to appeal. On FTT determination they can increase the rent to the market level or the level on the original s13 notice, not more. That new rent will start from the next rent payment date after the FTT determination. So there is an in built delay of several months if the tenant contests the rent to the FTT and there will be no backdating to the notice date. The FTT can delay the rent increase for up to two more months if they think it will cause undue hardship to the tenant.

All of this will slow down the process of rent increase dramatically. It is not rent control in any way but it is clearly, to coin a phrase, “rent suppression”. I expect that landlords will be increasing their rent every year as a result of this but tenants will likely be referring those rents to the FTT.

Pets and Discrimination

These provisions are largely unchanged and will extend into Wales and Scotland too. It will be unlawful to discriminate against people who want to rent on the basis that they have children (or children staying with them) or are on benefits. Any discrimination will have to meet a legitimate objective and discriminatory clauses in agreements will be void unless they meet that same test.

Pets can still be refused on marketing and letting but tenants can ask for a pet once they move in and it will be very hard to say no. There have been improvements here though in that the obligation to pay the pet insurance cost is now an implied term in tenancy agreements so tenants who do not pay can potentially be evicted.

Written Agreements

As before there is a requirement to have a written statement of tenancy terms. The form of that is to be set by regulations so this will be an important discussion in due course.

Other bits

There is a lot of new material on civil penalties, rent repayment orders and investigation, Awaab’s law and more. But I need more time to study all of this.

Commencement

The worst fears, that all this would come into effect automatically on Royal Assent have not been realised. The legislation will be commenced in due course. However, there is a hint in there that it will apply to existing and new tenancies at the same time but the commencement provisions are a bit messy and need more consideration.

Next Steps

The House rises for party conferences at the end of the week so all of this will wait now until after the conference season. I note that the Housing Minister has said that this will all be in force by Summer 2025. Frankly, I would say that is the last date and it is quite possible that some of this will be in force much sooner.