Renters Reform Bill
The long-awaited Renters Reform Bill has now been presented to Parliament so starts its journey through various readings in the 2 Houses of Parliament before it receives Royal Assent and becomes law.
The long-awaited legislation to improve renters’ rights has finally been introduced to parliament this afternoon – more than four years after the government pledged to abolish Section 21 evictions. A second reading will take place tomorrow.
In 2019, the then prime minister, Theresa May, promised to scrap Section 21 evictions, and later that year Boris Johnson vowed in the Conservative party general election manifesto “a better deal for renters”, including the eviction ban.
Ministers published a rental reform white paper in summer 2022, but with six different housing ministers since 2021, draft legislation has only now been presented to parliament for debate.
The secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, Michael Gove, insists that the draft bill will “change the way the relationship between landlords and tenants works, providing tenants with new protection, which should ensure they are better protected against arbitrary rent increases”.
Gove said the Renters’ (Reform) Bill will allow tenants to challenge poor landlords without losing their home.
The reforms will also strengthen powers to evict anti-social tenants, broadening the disruptive and harmful activities that can lead to eviction and making it quicker to evict a tenant acting anti-socially
To ensure the new tenancy systems works for landlords and tenants, it will be introduced alongside a reformed courts process. For those evictions that do end up in the courts, more of the process will be digitised – designed to reduce delays.
In addition, a new ombudsman will be established to oversee dispute resolutions while a digital “property portal” will be set up to assist property managers in understanding their obligations.
Gove commented: “Too many renters are living in damp, unsafe, cold homes, powerless to put things right, and with the threat of sudden eviction hanging over them.
“This government is determined to tackle these injustices by offering a New Deal to those living in the Private Rented Sector; one with quality, affordability, and fairness at its heart.
“Our new laws introduced to Parliament today will support the vast majority of responsible landlords who provide quality homes to their tenants, while delivering our manifesto commitment to abolish Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions.
“This will ensure that everyone can live somewhere which is decent, safe and secure – a place they’re truly proud to call home.”
Tenants will also be given the legal right to request a pet in their home, which the landlord must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse.
Landlords will be able to require pet insurance to cover any damage to their property.
The government will also bring forward legislation as part of the Bill to:
+ Apply the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector for the first time, giving renters safer, higher quality homes and remove the blight of poor-quality homes in local communities. This will help deliver the government’s Levelling Up mission to halve the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030.
+ Make it illegal for landlords and agents to have blanket bans on renting to tenants in receipt of benefits or with children – ensuring no family is unjustly discriminated against when looking for a place to live.
+ Strengthen councils’ enforcement powers and introduce a new requirement for councils to report on enforcement activity – to help target criminal landlords.
The government says that the Bill is a key part of the government’s mission to level up across the country and follows the wider housing reforms in the Social Housing Regulation Bill and Building Safety Act. These address the systemic issues identified following the Grenfell Tower tragedy on improving the safety and quality of social housing and how tenants are treated by their landlords.