By The fairer private rented sector white paper published today (16 June 2022) will ensure millions of families benefit from living in decent, well looked-after homes as part of the biggest shake up of the private rented sector in 30 years.
The white paper marks a generational shift that will redress the balance between landlords and 4.4 million private rented tenants.
It provides new support for cost of living pressures with protections for the most vulnerable, and new measures to tackle arbitrary and unfair rent increases.
This is part of a wider reform agenda to improve lives and level up the country, delivering more housing and greater protections for tenants and homeowners.
The majority of tenants enjoy safe and secure rentals, but for the 21% of private renter and households who currently live in unfit homes, this ‘New Deal’ will extend the Decent Homes Standard to the private sector for the first time, levelling up opportunities.
This means homes must be free from serious health and safety hazards, and landlords must keep homes in a good state of repair so renters have clean, appropriate and useable facilities.
Section 21 evictions – that allow landlords to terminate tenancies without giving any reason – will be outlawed.
More than a fifth of private renters who moved in 2019 and 2020 did not end their tenancy by choice, including 8% who were asked to leave by their landlord.
Measures published today also include:
- Helping the most vulnerable by outlawing blanket bans on renting to families with children or those in receipt of benefits
- For the first time, ending the use of arbitrary rent review clauses, restricting tribunals from hiking up rent and enabling tenants to be repaid rent for non-decent homes. This will make sure tenants can take their landlord to court to seek repayment of rent if their homes are of unacceptable standard
- Making it easier for tenants to have much-loved pets in their homes by giving all tenants the right to request a pet in their house, which the landlord must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse
- All tenants to be moved onto a single system of periodic tenancies, meaning they can leave poor quality housing without remaining liable for the rent or move more easily when their circumstances change. A tenancy will only end if a tenant ends or a landlord has a valid reason, defined in law
- Doubling notice periods for rent increases and giving tenants stronger powers to challenge them if they are unjustified
- Giving councils stronger powers to tackle the worst offenders, backed by enforcement pilots, and increasing fines for serious offences
In addition, the estimated 2.3 million private landlords will have greater clarity and support through the following measures:
- A new Private Renters’ Ombudsman will be created to enable disputes between private renters and landlords to be settled quickly, at low cost, and without going to court
- Ensuring responsible landlords can gain possession of their properties efficiently from anti-social tenants and can sell their properties when they need to
- Introducing a new property portal that will provide a single front door to help landlords to understand, and comply with, their responsibilities as well as giving councils and tenants the information they need to tackle rogue operators
These reforms will help to ease the cost of living pressures renters are facing, saving families from unnecessarily moving from one privately rented home to another hundreds of pounds in moving costs.
The Government have already taken significant action over the past decade to improve private renting, including reducing the proportion of non-decent private rented homes from 37% to 21%, capping tenancy deposits and banning tenancy fees for tenancy agreements signed after 1 June 2019, and introducing pandemic emergency measures to ban bailiff evictions.
Today’s measures will form part of the Renters Reform Bill as announced in the Queen’s Speech, to be introduced in this parliamentary session.
This will deliver on the Governments commitment to give renters a better deal and make the private rented sector fit for the 21st century with safer, more secure and higher quality homes.
Levelling Up and Housing Secretary Michael Gove said:
“For too long many private renters have been at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords who fail to repair homes and let families live in damp, unsafe and cold properties, with the threat of unfair ‘no fault’ evictions orders hanging over them.
Our New Deal for renters will help to end this injustice by improving the rights and conditions for millions of renters as we level up across the country and deliver on the people’s priorities.”
While the majority of private rented homes are of good quality, offering safe, comfortable accommodation for families, the conditions of more than half a million properties – or 12% of households – pose an imminent risk to tenants’ health and safety, meaning around 1.6 million people are living in dangerously low-quality homes, driving up costs for our health service.
The Government state that the sector offers the most expensive, least secure, and lowest quality housing to millions of renters, including 1.3 million households with children and 382,000 households over 65 and that rents are rising at their fastest level for 5 years.
Last week the government introduced the Social Housing Regulation Bill which means failing social housing landlords could face unlimited fines and Ofsted-style inspections.
In a major reset of power between tenants and landlords, residents will be able to demand information and rate their landlord as part of new satisfaction measures.
Taken together with today’s renters reform white paper, the Bill will form a key part of the government’s mission to level up across the country and deliver on the people’s priorities.
Nick Lyons, founder and CEO of No Letting Go, comments:
“While it’s pleasing that the White Paper has been published much sooner than expected – perhaps as the government tries to shift the agenda away from other issues – the reforms do seem a bit more radical than expected and don’t seem to give landlords much in the way of incentive or protection.
It’s likely that there will be a fair bit of lobbying going on before it becomes the Renters’ Reform Bill and then starts its journey through Parliament.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of all this is the mention of pets, which has become an increasingly popular want from tenants, especially since the pandemic.
The government’s previous attempts to make it more of a right for tenants to keep pets didn’t work out well, and it would be surprising if this latest plan doesn’t face opposition, too.
We’ll all need to closely scrutinise the White Paper and make sure that landlords, agents, tenants and suppliers alike are taken into consideration.”
Adam Male, Chief Revenue Officer at online lettings agent Mashroom, provides his opinions:
Comments on allowing tenants to terminate their tenancy agreement
“In the White Paper, tenants will have more power to end their tenancy agreement quickly if their circumstances change, or if they live in inadequate housing. Following the removal of Section 21, landlords and lettings will have to provide a legitimate reason for reclaiming their property back from a tenant, which comparatively won’t be a quick and easy process.
Giving tenants this option will protect them from the dodgy landlords out there who abuse the system, however these proposals seem unfair to the genuine landlords out there who provide an excellent service to their tenants and may need to claim their property back quickly for a valid reason.”
The removal of Section 21 and introduction of the Private Renters Ombudsman
“Many private landlords would probably tell you that they are unlikely to evict reliable tenants who look after their property and are on time with rental payments.
Reasons why landlords may want to vacate their rental properties quickly include rent arrears, antisocial behaviour, damage or that they may want to live in the home themselves.
Abolishing Section 21 makes removing unruly tenants much more difficult, instead having to rely on Section 8 notices, which take longer to process and will most likely be taken to court.
Going down the Section 8 route can take 12 months or more to regain possession of the property and a lengthy battle through the courts, despite having a genuine reason to evict a tenant quickly.
The proposal to introduce a Private Renters Ombudsman will be seen as a welcome addition to tackle any issues between landlords and tenants and ensuring they can repossess their property from tenants who continue to break the rules of the tenancy agreement, reducing the pressure on the courts.
The government needs to work to ensure that this proposed Ombudsman is set up quickly so that responsible landlords can reclaim properties without the need for lengthy court battles.”
Pets in rental properties
“The plans to allow pets in rental properties will most likely be welcome news to tenants who currently own or plan to introduce them to their household, however I think this will cause concern for private landlords.
Landlords may be nervous about allowing pets to live in their rental properties, which can be unpredictable and could have the potential to cause damage and expensive repairs.
Currently, landlords can only ask for 5 weeks of rent up front to cover the deposit for a rental property.
If damage caused by pets exceeds this amount, then landlords could be out of pocket and have to cover any additional repair work.
A solution to this could be for the government to look into extending the deposit amount that tenants with pets will have to put down on a property before they move in, increasing it by up to 8 weeks to cover any potential damage.
Insisting that tenants obtain appropriate insurance to cover the cost of potential pet damage would also be a welcome requirement to give landlords more protection.”
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