New renter rights act is a bloody good thing!

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Naturally landlords have some justifiable concerns/questions but those that are up in arms about the whole thing are completely bloody immoral. The slum landlords have spoilt it for the good ones and the decent landlords should blame them and not the government for protecting people.

If you arent aware of the actual points of the bill - I've listed them below. I cant see how any reasonable person can disagree that it's just enforcing the most basic human decency and regulation.

• End to no fault evictions: landlords can only evict renters if they want to sell, move in themselves, move their family into the property or there are serious rent arrears. They have to prove they are selling too - they cant just say they are!

• Rent can only rise once a year, any rise above market rate can be disputed fairly and 2 months notice is given.

• Landlords can't refuse you for having children or being on benefits (if you prove that benefits/finances make the property affordable). This isnt about being on full benefits either. Many single parents need benefits to top up income.

• Landlord ombudsman - tennants can raise fair disputes and repair issues for free online and landlords cannot just ignore it/grey rock. Repeat offenders will be visable in the database. Landlords legally must act on the complaints.

• Faster action must be taken on damp and mould. Basic human rights! No more shitty emails from a middle man letting agent just blaming the tennant for not opening a window - when actually (for example) a house needs its brickwork repointing.

The only legitimate thing I have empathy for is the concern that it will be more of a process to evict non paying tennants as it will need to go through a court. However - this is why landlord insurance exists!!

Please ask yourself - if your child was renting - wouldn't you want them protected like this?

Section 21 required a judgement. There is no time difference, unless they were a dodgy tenant forcing people out without going to court.

Section 21 was just automatic once you got to court, not something that didn't require court.

So why would it take longer if all the Section 21 cases now don't exist anyway just real issues for certain

In a recent radio 4 Moneybox podcast there were a couple of grumbles from tenants phoning in about the new act. One was that the landlord had asked for the new 2 months notice, when their previous contract asked for 1. Another person saying the landlord had given 4 months notice under the act when they previously had quite a while to run under a three year contract. There was a lot of confusion about what the act means for students including from.the students themselves and student support services.

Our tenants have just given notice. I'm very mindful that tenants can leave after 2 months in the new legislation, so we will spend minimally on the turnaround as new tenants could trash any new paint job/professional clean/leave animal soiling etc and leave after 2 months.

Shorter notice periods agreed previously, or after the change, are all valid. Two months is the default and max. Not the only possible option.

Niche situations might fall through and not be perfect during the changeover, but will be a tiny minority of potential situations - used as propaganda when found though. All one-off things, and things will stabilise as time goes on. Lets face it the landlord who wanted or was happy with 3 years of tenancy, clearly must have a real reason at least to do something that will ban them from renting it out again for a year. It also depends on when their tenancy started, it is possible for it to not be allowed.

It always has been so it’s not really changed.

Agree with this. Judges have been growing increasingly lenient in recent years with tenant misdemeanours in a drive to prevent further homelessness. Court backlogs are huge, it was the main reason the Tories pressed pause on the abolition of S21 - let’s not forget it was originally their Bill.

They pressed pause because they called a GE, stopping a great deal of planned changes.

Getting rid of S21 is a good thing, for tenants but the collapse of the court systems is down to them, they underfunded them and caused the very problems in delays that we see both in criminal and civil courts
It may be a pia to wait 12months for a evictions hearing but its a travesty of justice that a rape victim has to wait 3 or 4 years for their day in court.

Judges apply the law on S21 or S8, so long as the LL did the admin, the S21 would be granted, it's a very binary judgement.

S8 is a little different, anti social behavior is rather subjective, so a LL would be better off saying they wish to sell etc rather than going down this route.

The trouble with that is you do have to actively try to sell it and if you don't you can't rent it out again for 12 months.

Tories were proceeding with the Bill but with a pause on the element which included the abolition of S21 due to court backlogs. The GE then halted their Bill altogether.

How about sorting out the courts system?

Pausing S21 doesn't alter any backlog, people who would go to court with a S8, will do the same with an S21, it would alter nothing at all.

Remember the advice Councils etc give tenants? "wait until you've a court order to leave, or we will not consider rehousing you"

The GE was a choice, probably called due to the imminent collapse of the prisons estate and worsening economic news.

After all, they had their much touted Rwanda scheme coming in just a month later, that would have halted x channel migration to zero, destroying Reform and ensuring a Con victory 😆

Oh my so in this very common example, the preference is actually for properties to sit empty?

I'm surprised when we are in a housing crisis.

I agree with most of those points but surely a landlord should be able to say no to renting to anyone they want to, in the first place.

I’m not saying don’t deal with the courts system. What I’m saying is that Labour pressed ahead with the abolition of S21 knowing that the courts won’t be able to deal with the increase in S8s. Not all S21s went to court. Why has there been a rush in LLs selling before May?

I think the timing of the GE was a choice based on lots of factors, not just that Bill.

They still can.

Equally not all S8's will result in court action, most people wont want a CC judgement against them.

As far as i'm aware, there hasn't been an increased sell off pre May, its anecdotal and almost 12 billion worth of BTL mortgages approved 2025/26.

Anecdotally, i don't know anyone who has left the market, i haven't, RRA, atm, makes little difference, it probably strikes the right balance.

Shd new EPCs come in with no mitigation for older houses, that will be a game changer.

We have always been able to and still can. You don’t have to say you’re not renting to someone because they have kids, but that could still be the reason for example. You just choose someone else.

Ditto to this! How is renting out a property ever ‘accidental’? It’s virtually always a decision made because it makes financial sense.

Read the news. The sell off pre RRA has been higher than usual.

We have sold our smaller properties as they were the ones we have had more nightmare tenants in over the years and it just wasn’t worth the hassle. We sold them to much bigger landlords which probably won’t be good for tenants. We know lots of smaller landlords who have done the same.

I think that is the point. A lot of people making small decisions has a big impact. So a lot of smaller landlords with eg 7-10 properties selling the 3 riskisest ones and only holding onto the prime student lets in the middle of town or the typical flat owner getting married not holding onto their young professional flat for the market etc. Those decisions cumulatively can have a huge impact on the housing and rental market and even the student market/job market if people cannot rent locally.

Do you know what "Anecdotal" means? and the "news" telling us all LLs selling up is in the Tory supporting media.

There are no reliable figures yet on increased numbers of LL leaving the market, but BTL mortgages have increased both in number and value.

My neighbour has 13 rentals, soon will be 15, i don't know anyone who has sold up, i only know people who are either entering the market or buying more.

BUT our experiences are meaningless, no national reliable data has been produced on the impact of RRA, however, we do know that changes to taxation and higher interest rates have led to some LLs selling but that began several years ago.

The RRA doesn't make much difference to a decent LL.

If your a LL with 10+ rentals then the RR possibly touches you less. You do up rentals to a high standard as will have a list of reputable trades, charge premium rent. So one or two dragged out evictions can be covered by your overall profits. When you have one or two rentals you don't have that buffer.

I know a LL in a tiny village who owned 25 properties just sell all of them 6 months ago. Making a fair proportion of the village hunt around to move further afield.

It's as much about your feelings towards risk as finances. It's not a market for brand new investors unless they are seriously loaded.

If you couldn't cover a buffer no matter how few you had, you were just an incompetent landlord who wasn't running a viable "business" (which they shouldn't be anyway really) and always have been.

Why do you think bigger landlords wouldn’t be good for tenants?

In my experience the bigger the landlord the more professional the relationship and therefore the better service received. A bugger landlord also comes with less risk of them wanting to sell up or move in, in my experience.

Given the choice, I’d far rather rent from a corporation, then a landlord with a large portfolio & last choice would be a one off landlord.

Yes, I do know what anecdotal means. The extensive media reporting (not all Tory supporting media whatever that means since this was originally Tory legislation) demonstrates that this may well be 'anecdata' but on a large scale. I am on several landlord forums and in the quarter preceding May I must have read several hundred threads from LLs exiting the market. To pretend it's not happening is bonkers.