Renters rights bill - 1 May 2026 good or disaster?

[Rosie8880]

So the renters rights bill has now been confirmed. From May 1 next year all tenancies will become rolling/ periodic and section 21 no fault evictions will end. Reading some blogs some landlords feel this is the end of private landlords. I don’t feel it is. Housing is a serious thing obvs and for many decades it’s been seen as a financial wealth building instrument, first, and a home second. I think tenants will stay in properties for longer now which will onto benefit local communities, and minimise people having to move around all the time. Will there be a shortage of housing now - I don’t feel there will be. As less people hopefully will need to move all the time. There will be less need. Plus the homes that do get out on market will help lower asking price as more homes are made available. But let me know your thoughts

I also think there is a disconnect in thinking on MN in particular about what sorts of people rent. On here, the posters are mostly people with kids, or people in settled relationships, who are renting because they can't afford to buy and are at the whims of a potentially dodgy landlord.

You are not hearing from the recent graduates who are renting for 1-2 years, or who are in a new city figuring out whether they actually want to be an insurance broker, or people on secondment to a different city for 6 months, or young students. Because they are not the demographic of this forum. When I graduated I rented for about 2 - 3 years because I was moving about a bit, changing jobs/cities and marriage and kids were miles in the future. All my friends did the same. We didn't WANT to buy.

My DS graduated 2 years ago. He has a good grad job, as do many of his old school friends. They are all back home living with parents in S London as they can't afford rents unless in accommodation that is worse than their student digs.
I can't see how the new legislation is going to help them.

I think I have to agree with you.

I'm not sure what will happen in places where there just isn't room for more new private halls to be built.
And I also think it's a great shame that the student house share will be no more. It's so much nicer to be living in a home than in Halls.

The tax is on total income, not profit!

You and your DH will have to file self assessments quarterly and all rental INCOME (‘minus a 20% tax credit for mortgage interest) will be added to your total payable tax for the year.

You have said you are retired but if your DH is still working or your pension is taxed, the rental income is added on top as if it was a second job.

Like a lot of things it’s easy to hate on Mrs Smith who has the audacity to own two properties more than you but seemingly impossible to see the negative consequences of huge international conglomerates owning most of the rental housing stock in the country. I wouldn’t want my home and every other home I could live in to be owned by a bank or investors - what happens when they go bust or want to pull out to invest in something else? What happens when they decide they’re not making enough money? If there’s only a few landlords in the country it’s going to be really difficult to get away from them if it isn’t working out for you.

This and previous governments do not want average people to get wealthy. They want you spending every penny you have on the basics of living so a small number of people can get rich, just like it was in the past. They pit us against each other, encouraging you to despise the people who have slightly more than you to stop you knowing or caring about the people up at the top who happily take their millions/ billions from us all and never give back.

You might feel it is unfair to pay rent to someone who uses that money to create wealth for themselves, but if your circumstances changed that could have been you as well. You can’t go from being a renter because you currently can’t afford to buy a house to being a major shareholder in a large multinational corporation, so that way of making wealth is now shut off to everyone. And you won’t suddenly be able to buy a house and make wealth that way just because there are more for sale - as a bank or investment company is a safer sale than an individual apparently.

There have been things written about landlords not being allowed to refuse tenants permission to have pets, in a small flat any animals can make the place really smell. I can't really afford to replace carpets given my very low return.

The tax is on rental less allowable expenses, and yes it is added on top of any other income you have.

There's also ill-feeling in university towns where many new developments and conversions of large buildings are solely for student halls. This reduces the potential number of flats that are available to buy. In most places local housing associations looking to increase their housing stock can't compete with the large student letting companies as this is a very profitable business. Since most local authorities are no longer building social housing this is a problem for the growing number of families who are on social housing waiting lists and unlikely to every be in a position to buy.

“If there is a glut of landlords selling up which reaches a tipping point - aka severe lack of affordable rents properties - I believe government will step in and seek to buy up those properties or if vacant for over a year and it’s that servere, introduce CPO laws. Think there will be a period of adjustment but it’s a step bright direction.”

@Rosie8880 - but why do you have so much faith in “government”? You know right that they promised to build loads and have not delivered on any of that and are massively behind?
We all want to believe “the Government” is in control - they are not, they are at the whim of international financial markets and in big debt as is. Hating on your local small landlord who is actually paying tax here is completely bonkers when most of them did a fair job bar a few very shoddy ones. That should have been handled with giving local authorities licensing and more power much earlier to crack down on the few that were shoddy. Decimating it all with no back up plan is completely bonkers.

This will allow me to finally sell mine (trapped by the £250 ground rent issue) so I am pleased. I’ll have to give my tenant notice but selling it is one of the reasons you can so should be fine. And if they decide to leave before I can sell it, I will probably leave it empty until I can market it.

Can I ask what you have to do every month that costs £300?

It will be a disaster for private renters. Less properties equals higher rent. 🙄

Good luck with that

Which means fewer people will be able to afford to save up for deposits to buy their own properties.

Conservatives point the finger at the working class, and Labour point the finger at the middle class. Neither go after true wealth and exploitation, and neither want to - they just encourage us to turn on a different group to distract from it.

This is such an issue & thr issues leaseholders have really need to be sorted out. Incl crazy service / block management charges.

Know its been said a million times but right to buy/ making it illegal until last year (!) for councils to use £ from sales back into housing has been the most disastrous policy.

There is no way to rebalance the housing crisis without causing pain - and that’s the fallacy of it all.

We are private landlords (invested in property instead of pensions). Long term tenants who are very happy with us as landlords but we’ve had enough now. Will be giving notice to tenants that we will be selling houses in the new year. No benefit to being a landlord now. Too much hassle. Will invest proceeds instead and income from investments will go towards our retirement income.

Not entirely the same but we’re in Wales and the changes here have not been for the positive - as accidental landlords (thank you 2007/2008).

We are in the process of trying to evict our tenants after a ridiculous 6 month notice period, followed by a few weeks for a court hearing, where they will plead hardship, get another 7 weeks in the property, then another few weeks to get the bailiffs in. It’s ridiculous. Coupled with the ridiculous expectation re EPC ratings, there’s absolute no reason to keep the house anymore. We should break even when we sell.

edited to add - we of course meet the current minimum EPC rating but the plan to raise this to a C, in an area which has endless mid terrace houses which would need £££ to get it above what our current home is, is ridiculous.

And what happens when its the housing association thats lost the payment. We had this recently.

Yes, here in Wales all the regulations have done is make life harder for LLs and tenants both! Less rentals available, higher prices, ever more people vying for each possible tenancy.

My landlord has sold one their 3 properties already and will be selling the other 2 next year.
I'm 64, work part-time, have a fairly poor credit history, and dare to have a dog and a cat!
How many landlords would be willing to take me on?
I'm left hoping the council will house me before I'm homeless.

Had so many discussions with people who all think regulation is a good thing, can nobody see further than the end of their nose?

Here is a book that was published last month by someone who works as a contractor in social housing. Easy ride my arse.
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9781919197203/Middle-Ground-Frontline-Journey-Social-1919197206/plp

it does mention ppl in the housing sector whose attitudes are similar to yours.

Magic a new boiler out of thin air if it breaks?
Pay for a plumber if there's a leak?
Pay for an electrician if there's a fault?
You do know these aren't free don't you?

It’s also things that have the knock on effect, the small estate agent managing the property, the mortgage broker acting for a small time LL where they spend a bit of their wages boosting the economy. The bigger corporations won’t need the small person, so the small person loses out as well…

And this is really at the heart of the issue. As a landlord you sound like you have been great. But fundamentally the purpose for you renting out a property is your wealth creation, and why not - it’s been entirely legal and encouraged socially, politically, etc to use properties to create wealth. I am a landlord too.

But I do question it really we private landlords have been guided and supported enough to take on the enormity of providing homes not products. All these changes are right and just for tenants. Private landlords have since 80s baloooned as social housing has shrunk. The cost of housing rented or to own in most places where the economy is healthiest has soared too high. So how do we rebalance housing to make it affordable for all? There is only one way and that’s for either wages to massively increase or housing prices to fall. That’s the only way. And wages won’t increase. So housing prices to fall which is political suicide (atm), which is economically dangerous and will mean home owners wealth they were banking on, is slashed. It’s really a generational thing - politics is now looking to support those under 40 more who will be if election is 2029, the majority share of voters.

Finally someone who makes sense.

Yup this is the reality. As a LL I’ve been saying this for years. Shelter did/do renters a huge disservice.

LLs selling up - yeaay uh nope. The corporates are snapping them all up and LLs are selling directly to them with tenants in situ. John Lewis is also snapping them up too.

Remember a few years ago you had all those small time vets in towns and villages? Where are they now? Yup - mostly all bought out by the huge conglomerates and now veterinary fees are sky high.

Be careful what you wish for. Well you got your wish…