In their manifesto Labour promised to ‘immediately’ abolish so called ‘no fault’ evictions, which is the process of serving a s.21 Notice on a Tenant with a view to obtaining possession of a property let on an AST. In the Kings speech, just days after coming into power, Labour lost no time putting that plan into effect announcing the abolition of no-fault evictions. It is not, however, possible for any law to be put into effect ‘immediately’, the current law needs to be repealed and the new law needs to travel through parliament and debated, before finally being passed.
At this stage we still do not know the exact details of what Labours proposed bill will look like. The Conservatives spent a lot of time putting together the Renters Reform Bill but there remained concerns over the “final” draft and questions that had not yet been answered such as how would it work for student accommodation and could tenants challenge rents immediately after signing a tenancy agreeing to them?
The Conservatives Renters Reform Bill did receive cross party support so it’s likely some of the same policies will be in Labours bill but we wait to see the exact detail. What we do know from the Kings Speech is:
- Abolition of no fault evictions but expand and clarify the grounds of possession Landlords can rely on to reclaim their property;
- Implementation of a Decent Housing Standards and applying Awaab’s Law to the private rental sector as well as social housing. Awaab’s Law creates a mandatory timeframe for Landlords to deal with hazards such as black mould at a property;
- National Register for Landlords
- Measures to protect tenants from bidding wars at the outset of a tenancy and unfair rent increases.
The speech, written by the government and delivered by the monarch, sets out the Labour government’s legislative agenda for the parliamentary year. Speaking to the nation, King Charles revealed that new legislation will be instituted to “give greater rights and protections to people renting their homes”.
The Conservatives were going to wait to implement the bill until the Court’s ability to manage an increase in cases had improved but Labour have not said the same, which perhaps suggests they will continue to progress the bill through parliament regardless of the struggles of the court system. How quickly they can achieve that and how the bill is implemented is yet to be seen.
Whilst there will almost certainly be greater protection for tenants in the private sector in the coming years, the current housing system needs private landlords and landlords must be able to invest in rental properties for the system to work. Whilst there is uncertainty in the future and change is almost certainly coming, the government need to take Landlords concerns into account as if all Landlords sell their properties, the demand for rental properties is going to be even greater.
If you have any questions relating to the upcoming changes please contact our Property Litigation team on 0345 646 0406 or complete an online enquiry form, and a member of the team will be in touch.