What a journey! The Renters’ Rights Act has now received Royal Assent making it an act of Parliament (the law). This is the result of over a decade of tireless campaigning from Generation Rent, our supporters and our friends across the renter movement. It’s a moment for celebration for private renters and those affected by the housing crisis across the country.
This legislation is a vital first step towards addressing the power imbalance between tenants and landlords. It will make us more secure in our homes, whilst driving up quality and standards.
The government has not yet announced when the law will be implemented. This means the reforms have not come into law yet.
We will update our supporters as soon as we have more information on this but once the law comes into force, it will mean the following:
Goodbye to arbitrary Section 21 evictions
Section 21 evictions, a leading cause of homelessness, will finally be outlawed. In the vast majority of cases, a landlord will only be able to evict a tenant, outside of rent arrears or anti-social behaviour, if they want to sell, move into, or move a family member into the property. If they do evict through the grounds of selling or moving themselves or a family member in, they are not allowed to re-let the property for 12 months after the tenants have moved out. An eviction also won’t be possible during the first year of your new tenancy, while the notice period a landlord has to give tenants will double from two to four months. All of this means that we will have greater stability in our rented homes.
Landlords will still be able to evict tenants due to rent arrears or anti-social behaviour. However, the amount of rent arrears needed to trigger an eviction will be increasing from two to three months, giving tenants more breathing space to try to settle debts before facing an eviction.
Rolling tenancies for all
The reforms will also be bringing an end to fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies. Most tenants are currently on a fixed-term, a rental agreement that lasts for a specific, set period, such as six months or a year. With the new law, your tenancy will become a periodic tenancy, meaning that it automatically renews every month. That is until either the tenant provides a notice to quit or a landlord conducts a valid and legal eviction. This change gives renters much more flexibility, meaning you can leave the property anytime with two months’ notice, while still having the new eviction protections discussed in the previous point.
More power to challenge rent hikes
Under the new rules, landlords will have to issue a Section 13 notice to raise your rent. Section 13 notices are only used in rolling tenancies, and not fixed term ones. With fixed terms being scrapped, they will have to use these notices if they want to raise the rent. A landlord can only issue a Section 13 once a year, and they must give you two months’ notice of the new rent. The scrapping of Section 21evictions also reduces the risk of retaliatory evictions when renters choose to challenge rent rises.
Renters’ powers to challenge rent hikes at the First-Tier Tribunal will also be strengthened under the new law. As things currently stand, once a new rent has been decided by the Tribunal, tenants are often required to backpay the increased rent to the point in which the Section 13 gave notice to, but under the new rules renters will no longer be required to backpay their rent, and will simply start to pay the new rent from the date of the tribunal’s decision. This removes a significant financial cost for renters and further encourages us to make good use of the Tribunal.
Similarly, the Tribunal can currently set a rent higher than the landlord initially proposed, if rents on new tenancies in the local area are higher. This puts many renters off from challenging unaffordable rent rises. The new law sets the landlord’s proposed rent as the maximum, even if the new tenancy rent is found to be higher.
An end to months of upfront rent and bidding wars
The amount of rent in advance landlords can ask for will be limited to one month, reducing the upfront cost of renting.
You can also say farewell to bidding wars. No longer will renters make an offer at the asking rent only to be pitted against someone else who has offered more. When advertising homes, landlords and agents must publish an asking rent and it will be illegal to accept offers above that rate.
Moreover, blanket bans on tenants with children or those receiving benefits will finally be outlawed as discrimination.
The right to request a pet
Landlords will no longer be able to unreasonably refuse a pet in your privately rented home. If you want a pet, you must ask in writing.
Better homes
This law will apply the Decent Homes Standard (which sets minimum standards that homes must meet) and Awaab’s Law (which sets strict timeframes for repairing dangerous hazards like damp and mould) to privately rented homes, for the first time. However, the timeline for when these will take effect is still not known.
An Ombudsman and private landlord database
A new Private Rented Sector Ombudsman will provide a free, impartial and binding way to resolve disputes without the courts. In parallel, a landlord database is finally being introduced to give renters access to more information about their home and who they are renting from.
Reclaim your rent!
A Rent Repayment Order requires repayment of rent by a landlord or letting agent who has committed a specific renting offence against the tenant. These are mostly used when landlords need a licence but do not have one, something that is more common for large shared houses. The new law adds six new offences which tenants can claim rent payments back for, see our Know Your Rights page for more details. Tenants will be able to claim back up to 24 months’ rent (instead of the previous 12) and have two years to bring claims, while superior landlords and company directors will also be held liable, closing off loopholes some have been exploiting to get around these payments.
We did this together
Thank you again to all our amazing supporters and renters across the country, who have signed petitions, spoken to the media, and written to MPs to achieve these changes. While there is more to do, especially to bring down unaffordable rents, we are taking a moment today to recognise what can be achieved when we come together. The rights above will soon belong to every private renter in England and they will make an enormous difference to someone, somewhere, every single day.
