Agents are being urged to sign a new petition has been launched on the UK Parliament website to reverse the move towards Periodic Tenancies contained in the Renters Reform Bill. 

So far the petition, which was launched last week, has around 1,400 signatures: it doubled its level of support in one day earlier this week, after publicity on Landlord Today.

As usual it requires 10,000 to get a mandatory response from government, and 100,000 to have a possible Parliamentary debate. It is open for signatures until December but as the Renters Reform Bill will have made significant progress through the House of Commons by that time, supporters point out that backing for the petition is required much more urgently.

The petition reads:

“Assured Shorthold Tenancies provides many private sector landlords the stability that we require to let our properties for a fixed period of time. We believe that removing this tenancy type will have an adverse impact on private sector landlords.

“There are many good landlords out there who invest a significant amount of money in the properties. Assured Shorthold Tenancies provide landlords with the peace of mind that their property and the costs associated with it provide a return on their investment, and creates safeguards for when tenants leave. 

“We ask the Government to reverse the move to periodic tenancies and allow landlords of all property types to continue to provide fixed-term tenancies.”

Periodic tenancies would allow tenants to give shorter notices to landlords, given that contracts would be rolling, and so landlords are likely to be faced with multiple new tenancies and the associated marketing, referencing and void costs.

You can see and sign the petition here.