What needs to be strengthened in the bill?
The Renters Reform Bill is a big step forward for the millions of renters in England. But there are important parts of the bill that need to be changed before it is robust enough to genuinely make private renting safer, fairer and more secure for renters.
- Firstly, notice periods are still only eight weeks long and need to be longer. When section 21 is abolished, landlords will still be able to evict their tenant if they want to sell up or decide to move themselves (or a family member) into the property. These grounds for eviction are new or amended “landlord need” grounds – and a landlord will only need to give eight weeks’ notice to use these grounds for eviction. We know that this is not long enough to find a new home for many renters, particularly in areas of high demand and high prices. We need notice periods to be lengthened to four months – to protect private renters against upheaval and to give people long enough to find a new place to live.
- Secondly, renters need more protection when entering a tenancy agreement. In the new proposals, landlords will be able to evict their tenant if they want to sell or move into the property after an initial ‘protected period’ of just six months. This gives renters very little certainty that they won’t be forced to move again within a few months moving into a new home. If a landlord chooses to rent out their property, they should be clear that renting to someone is a long-term commitment. Private renters should have a protected period of two years at the start of tenancy agreements during which a landlord cannot serve an eviction notice unless the tenancy agreement has been breached. Six months is nowhere near long enough to give private renters the security they need in their homes – and the government itself initially proposed a two- year protected period when it first consulted on these reforms.
- Thirdly, every loophole for unfair evictions must be closed. Section 21 evictions are a leading cause of homelessness and we cannot allow unfair evictions to continue to happen through the backdoor when it is finally scrapped. That means the new grounds for eviction must be watertight. In the current proposals, a landlord could evict a tenant because they claim to want to sell the property or move in, but after a “no let” period of just three months the property can be put back on the rental market. This leaves a lot of room for misuse and exploitation. We want the “no let” period lengthened to a year, with a high evidence threshold and punitive penalties for landlords who are found to have misused these grounds in order to unfairly evict their tenant. There has also been an expansion for eviction grounds for anti-social behaviour to include any behaviour “capable of” causing “nuisance or annoyance”. But what would count as this behaviour? We want to make sure the new grounds cannot be unfairly misused by landlords looking for an easy way to evict a tenant.
We’re still combing through the Renters Reform Bill to make sure renters are at the heart of the government’s proposals. But our number one priority is making sure homes are safe and secure for private renters once section 21 is finally abolished.