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

Royal Assent this coming week I think and then it becomes an Act of Parliament. Several aspects might need to wait, like the list of landlords, etc but I think other aspects become law straightaway?

Because unless the government conjures a million social homes out of their arse within the next year there aren’t going to be enough rentals for renters to live in.

If we want to abolish landlords we have to set up the alternative provision first. If we don’t actually want to abolish landlords then it needs to be financially attractive to be one.

People are being evicted left right and centre BECAUSE there aren’t enough rentals properties.

We are exactly the same as you.
Sold up a year ago.

No fault eviction? That’s a joke landlords don’t evict without a reason. It can take over a year to get any eviction done and cost absolute thousands. I’m in the middle of it at the moment.

I would love a long term tenant who looks after my property. Two bedroom house in great school catchment areas, fully refurbished, nice neighbours etc. All repairs are done within 48 hours. Sensible rent. We are great landlords.

After four tenants over three years (they kept leaving) we thought we had one. Signed a three year contract after they’d been there a year and kept the rent the same throughout. Then three months in I get a call from the police at midnight after they have broken the door down but can’t tell me why.

In three years we have had to spend over £20k on fixing damage left by tenants, extra insurance, utilities and council tax whilst the property was empty, agents fees and lost rent. It was never meant to be a money spinner but we have lost money overall. We were only accidental landlords through inheritance.

Sorry but we are selling up as we don’t have the money to cover people’s crappy behaviour.

Unless anyone knows of anywhere where you can find tenants who give as much respect as we want to give them?

I think its going to drive down the number of rentals available. The 'accidental' or temporary landlords just won't bother. Not least because you can't have a tenancy length under 12 months and can't give notice in that period. So all the people who, for example, go abroad for a job or travel, won't rent out their house for a shorter term as they won't have someone to live on their return.

I'm in this boat, I want to take 6 months unpaid leave next year to go back to 'home'country but now will just cover the mortgage & service charge from savings and maybe have some friends to housesit when they want, and ask neightbours to keep an eye on the place as well. I also have friends who've moved in together and rented the other flat out. Now friend will sell it in advance of all the rental changes and just invest the money instead, as she's not a professional landlord and doesn't want the hassle.

It is far too hard to evict people now under section 8. If they stop paying rent or trash the place, or cause excess noise and disruption to neighbours, landlords struggle to get them out. I live in a block of flats and 2 flats currently have section 21 notices because of so many complainr about them (especially late night parties, inconsiderate behaviour & noise, young kids running around unsupervised, excessive weed smoking affecting neightbours and drunken damage to the communal areas). It's breaking the terms of the lease so landlord is under pressure from freeholders to remove them (tenants have had LOADS of warnings). I don't see the new rental changes making that any easier.

This is not what most landlords and renters blogs are saying but the government are “tight lipped”. Why would any small landlord risk waiting beyond royal assent to serve a section 21 notice if it’s the case that they can just ban them without an end date?

I’m also always astonished at people saying landlords can just issue a section 21 & get tenants out virtually by the end of the day. As @Kendodd says it’s hard enough with a 21, & @Hoppinggreen is right on the lengthy timescales - it takes months if not years, during which a bad tenant can do immeasurable damage that has to be cleaned up by the landlord.

It’s damn near impossible financially & legally for a small scale landlord to get a tenant out these days, & that’s with a 21. The people who are going to be able to apply significant economic pressure on tenancies in future are going to be the more unscrupulous large scale landlords referred to in my previous post. Renters may feel that have more rights but the battle to enforce those rights against seriously wealthy & less principled landlords is going to be an uphill struggle. They’ll end up giving up & trying to move on. And to where? All there will be is a property owned by a similar landlord (& that’s if you can find one, as so many landlords have pulled out.) Because people like me have gone, that’s all that’s left. The very people that renters have been understandably complaining about.

What is due this week is that the Commons will consider amendments made by the House of Lords. We don't know when the bill will receive Royal Assent. When it does, it will become an Act of Parliament, but the bulk of it (including abolition of section 21) won't come into effect until a date to be set by the Secretary of State.

This is the type of answer I was looking for, but if it is that clear then why isn’t it anywhere to be found on the gov own website?! Surely we have the right to know in advance of changes as big as abolishing the section 21 notice.

I spend time in France, have good friends there, & we often discuss this. As seems to be typical for the British, we try & abolish something without ensuring there’s an decent alternative 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m a former private landlord who spent years arguing for a good social housing programme, because as my closest friend says, I may have turned out to be quite good at capitalism but am still a socialist at heart.

https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/acts/

And this suggests it could come into effect immediately? With the government being “tight lipped” with potential dates of commencement this is just scaring people. It all feels very wrong. Will there be a wave of section 21 notices issued this week, with a date to leave of Christmas Day? Sounds headline grabbing and deliberate.

Some people do have strange ideas about landlords.

Decent ones want to have a steady income from a property. They don't want the inconvenience of cleaning, redecoration and marketing, then checking on new tenants. They don't want void periods. They want to know that £X will ve paid every month.

Ironically there probably are more giving notice right now simply because they "want the house back" I.e. sell as its no longer good business sense.

Presumably that date could be immediately after the assent?

It is there but you have to look in several places to find it and it helps to have an understanding of the way these things work. The page on the Renters Rights Bill tells us that consideration of amendments will happen on 22nd October. Section 145 of the bill tells us that the bulk of it comes into effect on a date to be set by the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State has not yet set a date. This is normal. The date will be set some time after the Act is passed. When the government picks a date, there will be at least several weeks notice, possibly several months.

This is normal for legislation. Indeed, there is some legislation that has been on the books for years which still hasn't come into force in full because the relevant Secretary of State hasn't set a commencement date.

But it is possible to set a much faster date?

If you know people will react to a date in weeks or months time and issue notices then make it swift. I’d not rely on the same delay to set a date if you definitely don’t want to get caught out.

Yes, but the problem is that landlords are already selling up rather than rent a property out again and this mass exodus of landlords will only increase pressure on the already low number of rentals available.

The new law is almost certain to see an even faster disappearance of rental properties in the next few months. Many many more tenants are about to be evicted and there will be no homes for them to rent .

This is about to become a national scandal of homelessness.

They haven't been agreed yet, so there's nothing to inform you of yet.

They could inform us that there will definitely be a transition period 🤔

I wouldn’t rely on anything op. A long lead time would give people time to issue notice. Make your decision based on it could be immediate.

I expect that it will become easier again to remove tenants once all the rental properties are owned by large corporations, which seems to be the way things are going. I think it’s difficult for both landlords and tenants at present, and these changes won’t help at all.

No, it is not possible to set a faster date. The Secretary of State cannot make the regulations needed to bring the Act into force until it has received Royal Assent. Those regulations have to be laid before Parliament for at least 40 days before they can come into effect.

Schedule 6 of the Bill sets out the transition arrangements. These have been amended as the bill has passed through Parliament. In summary, with regard to Section 21 notices:

• If a notice has been issued and possession proceedings have started when the Act comes into force, the notice will remain valid until possession proceedings have concluded.
• If a notice has been issued but the landlord has not started possession proceedings, the landlord can start proceedings until 6 months after the notice was issued or 3 months after the Act comes into force, whichever is the earlier. The notice will remain valid until the possession proceedings have concluded or the time limit for starting proceedings has expired.

This has coincided with a big push for guaranteed rent and legal cost insurance. It’s expensive insurance, at around £600 per month for rent up to £3k. That insurance will become standard practice and the £600 will be added to rent (along with national insurance and additional compliance costs), the insurance also comes with strenuous background checks and guarantees. It’s not going to be a good time to be a renter or a landlord. Like a lot of Labour’s policies, its driven by ideological spite rather than any sort of sensible planning.

So there will be a minimum of 40 days after royal assent in which landlords could still issue a section 21 notice? Thanks for clarifying