Renters bill

[JosieMain]

With the new bill coming into law later this year/ early 2026, a question:- is the only way to move tenants on (should they not have breached contract nor fall behind with rent arrears, aside from other specialist areas - student, employment, homeless accommodation), if a property is being sold, redeveloped or landlord moving in? As if so, tenants will have rights to stay in property forever until those points come into play. Aka no more section 21.
Intersted in views of is this interpretation right + is this reasonable.

Because you're not a housing charity 🙄

Renters right bill will make landlords hostages to tenants. You just need to make one mistake by renting your property to a wrong person and you are done. They will be able to live rent free for years while you’ll be desperately trying to get your property back and subsidising someone else lifestyle. There will be very limited options for you as a landlord to fight back. New bill also has high penalties and risk of imprisonment for landlords - read it properly.The counterparty risk is too high for a minuscule profit you will be making. Just sell it and invest it into something else. Or Airbnb.

We are just going through the process of issuing section 21 notices as a result of the nes bill and will hopefully be selling up.

We're getting on and want to simplify our finances. We want to sell the house, even though she's been there for 10 years. She pays below market rate as we know she struggles since her husband left.

However, her children constantly annoy the neighbours, who are friends, and not easily annoyed. So now seems like the best time.

Maybe to move an elderly parent or adult child in. Maybe to have a holiday cottage you can use for extended family when needed. I’m sure there’s all sorts of individual reasons we can’t think of.

British prosperity was built on secure property ownership rights. Eroding those reduces investment. In this case, landlords are selling up, reducing the availability if housing for those who want to rent.

Refusing to let maintenance staff into a property to carry out essential work, such as insulation, damp proofing etc. I’m not a landlord, but know someone who had this problem.

Surely all these ex-rental properties coming on the market will be a good thing? My colleague has just bought a flat identical to the one he was renting. He's lucky his parents could help him with the deposit. His mortgage is 2/3 of his rent per month.

Many of my nice, middle class middle aged friends have at least one rental property. All should be ‘first time buyers’ houses, but they’re renting them to those young people who they’ve priced out of the market. They’re all moaning, too, now that the government are finally limiting this cash-cow.

The mad proliferation of ‘ave-a-go landlords and a nervousness of a demographic coming of political age, alienated and disenfranchised by an older generation, with precisely 60 days security of tenure/ proximity to work, friends, schools -are the root cause of this.

My colleague has just bought a flat identical to the one he was renting. He's lucky his parents could help him with the deposit. His mortgage is 2/3 of his rent per month.

What this doesn't take into account is that he is now responsible for maintenance (and if it's a flat, often quite hefty management fees) - in particular saving money for the bigger expenses like replacing kitchens, bathrooms, roof repairs etc. Rent covers all of that stuff. Plus he will now have to pay buildings insurance.

we are great tenants of a high end rental - however the landlord has put the rent up ( and it was already overpriced relative to very similar standard rentals after the first year) -we haven’t moved because factoring in a move would cost us £3k plus the hassle and on a house of this size and the stuff we have it was easier just to pay the extra £150 every time. It has now got to a silly point though and given the new rules I have been taking rightmove screenshots when similar are on the market at £300 -£500 a month less. This time I will be making a point. Getting tenants who pay £3 k plus month, keep it lovely, have a gardener every month etc and yet do sod all maintenance - they should be going out there way to keep us , and no, they don’t have an enormous mortgage on it either . Whilst there are indeed some shocking tenants out there, there’s plenty of awful landlords- and it seems at ‘all’ levels - greedy rich people with big houses , appear to be some of the worst - the issues aren’t all at the cheaper end of the market

Moving in a relative in need would be allowed under the new rules.

If you’d make a family homeless so that you could have a ‘holiday home’ then you’ve absolutely no business being a landlord.

Again, that would be in breach of contract so not relevant.

Disturbing all other tenants with parties until late at night and people coming and going.

Again, that would still be a relevant reason to evict as antisocial behaviour would be a breach of contract.

You’d have a tough time trying to prove antisocial behaviour though - the bar is very high in my experience. For the benefit of neighbours and the neighbourhood, it’s better not to renew the tenancies of those that display persistant low level anti social behaviour, and there are plenty of posts on Mumsnet where people have real issues with neighbours selfish or antisocial behaviour with little or no interest from any authority.

The reality is, rents are high because the supply of rental property is low. The economy needs a vibrant rental sector as well as affordable homes to buy, because for all sorts of employment reasons people need to move around the country but perhaps not permanently relocate. And that includes public sector staff like doctors who are training. There are several times in my career when I’ve reneged properties for work purposes in the UK. Often the rental properties are not in areas when people want to buy, though sometimes they are.

The simplest solution would be to massively increase the supply of rental property by building more, proper (by which I mean not Housing Association) council homes The government sent itself a target to build 1.5 million homes during the term of this parliament; all it’s succeeded in doing so far is reduce the number of homes being built. Imagine how you could change the landscape of housing in this country by building a million and a half true council houses.

They won't make any difference. They won't all be bought by ex renters, they won't affect house prices.

Rent is going to get very expensive. Rentals are going to be impossible to find. The only losers will be people stuck in overpriced, unsuitable accommodation, or still living at home.

Imagine being 40 and living in a sudo student hall, that is the future.

It is my understanding that any LL who is not happy with their tenant has until the end of September to issue a section 21. I've been a LL for 19 years and never had to issue one but I'm about to issue one in next 2 days to coincide with the end of a year fixed term contract. I find it difficult to deal with this tenant. They refused to let gas engineer have access to do gas certificate. It took about 6 attempts and I had to go too before they let him in. Neighbours on both sides have complained about the noise made whenever the Dad goes to work and Mum is dealing with their DC. I know this will be my last chance to evict them. Without RRB I'd have waited and hoped things would settle but I can't take that risk now. I'm thinking of selling this house now.

Crikey what was their reasoning for not letting the gas man in?

No idea. I text them he would be coming at 10pm Mum at home but would not let him in. I texted Dad as he speaks better English he said ok but his wife just wouldn't open the door. After several goes like this I had to drive up and she did open the door for me. Then gas man could do certificate.

Thats crazy! In this situation I do not blame for you evicting & selling. You will avoid a lot of future problems.

You arranged a gas man to go round at 10pm?

I wouldn't be wanting to open the door to the gasman at 10 pm, that is a ridiculous time

Whilst I understand why the changes are being made, in parallel the law for house sale and purchase in England and Wales should be changed. It is currently a spivs and chancers charter. Have the same as Scotland unless something better can be found.

I think RRB gets Royal assent Sept but then it’s estimated to commence aka come into force by April. The deadline for issuing a S21 is the day before it commences. I think! I have tenants in AST til next spring / summer & ultimately until I sell or move in or what not, they are my tenants so no pressure there - they are nice so fingers crossed :)

This is on flip side … landlords like us will need to think long term about leasing spaces as homes and insurance I hope will change to accommodate. I do understand this change and it’s whislt painful for landlords on flip side for those who can’t buy a property gives them security.

the choices for LL now are…

1. keep renting - tenants as long term tenants
2. sell up
3. move in

thats it basically