End to section 21 notices. When will it happen?

[NConthe]

Hi, just wondering if anyone has any insight into how quickly the ban on section 21 notices could come in. Could it be instant with the Royal assent of the bill/law or will there definitely be a period of time whereby landlords can serve a section 21 notice? I can’t find anything definitive

Bump 🤔

There is nothing definitive yet.

Say goodbye to renting as you know it. Or just say goodbye to renting

I remember pre section 21. It was grab what was available and some places being not fit for human occupation but you grabbed what you could as it was hard to get first refusal

Dont get me started on the cost of renting

I can’t understand why renters think this is going to be a good thing

This is still the case now!

Estate agents will literally advise people to out a deposit down without viewing, that's how quickly properties go.

At least with rent reforms, once you are in you will have a semblance of security and there will be the decent home standards too

Removed, somehow posted twice by accident

You aren’t looking past being a renter. As a landlord if you aren’t able to do a no fault eviction then why would you rent to someone who could be a PITA and not be able to get rid of.

Estate agents might be taking deposits for places to rent and when you are in you have more security but first there has to be a landlord of a nice property that is willingly to rent their place out to you.

If all the governments legislation to discourage landlords has resulted in fewer landlords, fewer rental properties and much higher rents

What do you think this legislation will do.

Will it encourage more landlords to provide more good quality rental properties on to the market. Drive down rents and provide housing for many more families

Or

Will it discourage landlords from renting their properties out on a long term basis. Getting rid of even more rental options and drive up rents because the demand far outstrips supply

You might have more rights as a renter but if there isn’t a place to rent it is something of a pyrrhic victory.

I’m a renter in France where it’s far, far harder to evict anyone at all for any reason and where tenants have far more rights and are more protected than in the UK. The upshot is that it’s really really hard to get a rental here. The average prospective tenant needs payslips to prove that their income is at least 3 times the rent, they need to provide tax returns and employment contract as proof that their situation is ‘regular’. If you can’t do this you must have a guarantor - someone who agrees to pay your rent of you don’t (and they need to provide all the financial proof as well). Increasingly, guarantors are being asked for even if you can afford the rent.

The flips side in France is that the provision of social housing is huge compared to the UK. And the equivalent of housing benefit is quite generous.

I’m a landlord. A good one: the property is cared for, the rent is below market value because the tenant is good, everything is serviced as it should be and anything that needs replacing is replaced quickly.
im going to sell ASAP

At this point I'm wondering if the Government want to send rents sky high to encourage corporations to build flats etc. But as the expense of paying housing benefit is crippling the country and only going to grow as generation rent ages I'm hoping not.

I suppose for landlords with no mortgage and deep enough pockets to not completely fold should they need to spend thousands and wait years to get rid of non paying or problem tenants, then this could potentially be financially advantageous.

After all, the supply and demand imbalance will cause rents to go sky high, and will also offer enough choice of tenants to enable them to only pick the very best - with high, stable incomes, excellent credit scores and probably even with a guarantor.

But this can only be bad for tenants - and will throw far more people onto the mercy of local authorities, which in turn, even if they can even find properties, will have to pay/subsidise the sky high rents.

I was at a property conference last week and there was a talk from a leading property lawyer on The Renters Refrom Bill and he thought April 2026.

And yes, it will make things much harder for both Landlords and Renters

This was us. Sadly the last tenant wrecked the place and we still had a terrible time getting them out. The LA was telling them to stay put until the baliffs arrived, costing us even more. It took thousands to bring it back to a decent standard, thankfully DS has it now.

I think it will be a bit later than that, I would think possibly about six months after Royal Assent. There will need to be a definition of what is a fault, perhaps by a Statutory Instrument. Non-payment of rent completely am sure will be one, but what about arrears, behaviour, commercial use of the property, for example.

I believe a Landlord in Kent has just successfully won a case againt a Council who advised a Tenant who had a S21 to stay put until the Bailiffs arrived.
Might be the first of many such cases

That is already the case here as well though with regards to proving income

Because they're fed up with being booted out of their house after six months/a year because the landlord has decided they want it back, or they think they can make more rent from someone else.

It's so incredibly disruptive, it was bad enough when I was youngish and didn't have kids - you can't live your life like that.

Was it said to be possible that the government could abolish section 21 notices immediately?

The problem with getting rid of section 21 is that its too hard to get rid of somebody on a section 8. The only time I've used a Section 21 is with a tenant who hadn't paid the rent for about six months and deliberately (confirmed by plumber) broke the boiler to argue that he didn't need to pay the rent. He also had a dog in the house against the tenancy agreement (I would have actually agreed to the dog if he'd asked) and multiple other issues. It would have taken too long, been to difficult and too expensive to use a secion 8.
If the government really want to do something to improve things for renters they need to have an absolutely massive council house building programme. Solve the problem properly and give people decent and secure homes.

But thats not easy to do now. Evictions are taking a year or more
And its not their house

This is exactly how similar legislation in Ireland several years ago has panned out. It has caused a rental crisis (already dire pre covid) that politicians and media are blaming on air bnb instead of asking themselves why homeowners are preferring short term lets instead of the security of a tenant.

When you say asap, do you mean you’ll be serving a section 21 before the end of the week or are you confident there will be time to do this beyond royal assent being given?

He thought that there would be a transition period .
There was a lot of talk about what circumstances would allow a LL to remove Tenants and they were few.
Landlords are very nervous and selling up, usually to large corporations and they are also putting a lot of hurdles in the way or potential Tenants. Anyone without a great profile will struggle even more
I am all for Renters rights - my job is related to Tenants not Landlords but anything that makes it harder to secure a Rental does worry me

I was a landlord for over 20 years. Like @MakingadecisionI was a good landlord, providing high quality, well maintained homes at a sensible price. I had little turnover of tenants, some of whom stayed for 6-8 years at a time. I went into the sector when I was a single mother with a disabled child, it was a way of creating a basic income that allowed me to still care for my child. I was putting money into the system & not taking money out of it.

I became so sick of the attitude towards landlords that I left the sector entirely. Being discursively treated as a ‘fat cat’ like I was the boss of a failing water company who’d just taken a million pound bonus increasingly irritated me. When I sold my properties I tried to ensure they went to decent landlords (no FTBs came forward, another problem with the system) but ultimately I didn’t have control over that. Unfortunately more unscrupulous investors are now buying up such properties, ultimately making the offer for renters far worse.

In my last few years in the business I & others were asked via various organisations by the Govt what should be done to improve this area. We gave recommendations, many of which would have made us poorer but which would have secured the sector. The Govt ignored it all & ploughed ahead with headline grabbing policies like the end to Section 21 which will demonstrably weaken the sector.

The ultimate solution is to build affordable homes & provide social housing. Private rentals then become an option for those who want them & not a necessity. We all know there are unscrupulous landlords but tinkering at the edges with populist policies that won’t achieve what they claim they will isn’t helping anyone, except the Rachmans who are on their way back in number.

This will cause rents to go up as supply shrinks.