A survey of nearly 700 letting agents from across England has revealed that the abolition of Section 21 continues to be the leading cause for concern within the industry.
The insights - drawn up by a Goodlord survey - show that the majority of agents feel unprepared to implement the recently announced Renters Reform Bill with large parts of the sector also concerned about the move to a system of assured tenancies and the Bill’s potential impact on student lets.
When asked which element of the Renters (Reform) Bill was causing them the most concern, 50 per cent of the 690 letting agents surveyed said the abolition of Section 21.
The worry is over how agents will be able to recover a property in instances such as non-payment of rent or anti-social behaviour.
Next on the list of concerns is the planned reform to Section 8, the new and strengthened regulations designed to allow landlords to evict a tenant after six months if they wish to sell the property, move in themselves or offer the property to a relative.
Despite being designed to provide safeguards to landlords after section 21 is outlawed, 20 per cent of agents said the Section 8 changes were their biggest worry, indicating that many are unsure whether the provisions will be robust enough.
These Section 8 fears are vying for second place as the most commonly cited concern amongst agents, with 20 per cent of those surveyed also saying that the move to assured tenancies - a decision which took many in the industry by surprise - was their biggest concern.
Tenancies are often under 12 month contracts. The move to ‘periodic’ tenancies will mean that properties will be under rolling monthly contracts, once the Bill has been implemented. Scotland introduced rolling contracts in 2017.
When asked where extra support and guidance would be most helpful, 52 per cent of agents said the move to Assured Tenancies, highlightly a lack of clarity as to what these changes will mean for them in practice.
There is also a large amount of confusion and uncertainty around how the Renters Reform Bill will affect student tenancies. It’s feared that the move to ‘periodic’ tenancies won’t be appropriate for student lets, which typically end in line with the academic year, when the properties are taken up by a new group of students.
Some 51 per cent of agents said they didn’t yet understand what the reforms would mean for student lets, with only 17 per of letting agents, including those specialising in student lets, stating that they understood what the impact would be.
A Goodlord spokesperson says: “Whilst we have now seen the first version of this Bill, it doesn’t mean the industry has full clarity- far from it. These findings show that a lot of concerns and unanswered questions remain for agents and their landlords when it comes to the sweeping changes this legislation will enact.
“For some areas, such as the Bill’s possibly unintended impact on student tenancies, we hope that the Government factors this into the final text of the legislation. In the meantime, it’s clear the industry must start to get to grips with the details of the bill and make meaningful preparations now to ensure their businesses are well prepared for change.”
%20-%20IMAGE%20Client%20Accounting%20%E2%80%93%20what%20are%20your%20options.jpg)
.png)
%20(002).png)
%20(002).jpg)
Join the conversation
Jump to latest comment and add your reply
Periodic tenancies from day 1 from tenants is the most worrying, especially in areas like here, on the coast. It will be cheaper for people to rent a flat for 6 months and give notice as soon as they move in than to stay in a hotel for 2 weeks!
The application of it, misunderstood, the realities poorly conceived, the practicalities ignored. On paper, which government touts in the press, it sounds like a good piece of legislation. Remove S21, but hey, we are giving landlords more grounds for possession through the Courts so don’t worry. It’s a fair argument in theory. In practice, it takes 5.5 months to get to Court now, when S21s are added to the queue, let’s call that 12 months to gain possession if you are lucky as HMG haven’t thought to increase the capacity of capability of the Court system or process to handle the huge increase in volume.
On top of that, possession will effectively be denied to some landlords with anti-social tenants under the Bill. On paper, landlords will be able to take their tenants to Court for anti-social behaviour. In practice neighbours will understandably be too scared to testify meaning most cases will never get off the ground and landlords will be stuck with their problem tenants, or as I suspect will happen, a black market will develop from "contractors" who earn a living persuading these tenants to move on.
As with the Tenant Fees Act, consultations are being ignored, ditto advice from those of us in the industry that know. What will now happen, especially as the CGT allowances go up at the same time, is we will look back to 2022-2024 and see a mass exodus of LLs, data for which we won’t be able to see for some time. Ministers endlessly quoting that the PRS hasn’t really shrunk that much as a % of housing stock in recent years is irrelevant, this will become known in the future as that "moment". With interest rates as they are, landlords are better sticking whatever equity they have in the bank, even an ISA will do better than a BTL. I know dozens of LLs who plan to do exactly that.
All good points @MP and these are only a small selection from the long list of problems with this ill-conceived, incompetant and highly counterproductive legislation...
...but as we'll see none of that will matter to the government and they'll plough on regardless and obliviously.
Common sense, the facts and a deep understanding of what they're tampering with are irrelevant to these people.
:(
The changes need to be robust. I have a tenant who is causing a nuisance to neighbours, but not quite enough to get an ASBO. As they paying rent on time and not damaging the property, we can currently only use the discretionary ground 14, which I think I have more than enough evidence of, or S21. As they have already said they are going to ignore any notice issued by us as we do not have grounds to evict, where would that leave us, without a definitive way to get a possession warrant? The simple fact remains, that it is the LANDLORD's asset and if they want it back, they should be able to get it back in a reasonable timeframe without having to spend thousands in Court.
Agents really don’t need to panic- the reality is, this change will make very little difference to how we all operate on a day-to-day basis. Here’s why:
85-90% of tenancies are ended by the tenant
Around 4% are sold- a possession right that will be protected
About 2% move in or move family in- a possession right that will be protected
Annual rent increases will still be permitted
S8 Grounds will be strengthened for Landlord around rent arrears and ASB
Factoring all of those elements- what, as an agent, is still worrying you about S21 going?
Look at Scotland- there was similar panic in the lead-up to removing S21 there- and everyone quickly realised there was nothing to worry about. It’s a headline-grabbing, red tape generating, administerial beast of a change- that will make little or no difference to tenants. In fact, I think the uniform thought, is that this will negatively impact lower-income tenants as agents and landlords alike will be more cautious before placing an indefinite tenancy.
I’ll be on a Zoopla-hosted webinar next week talking about the RRB and answering questions- ping me your questions and I'll try and cover them then.
Oh dear, it's our very own "property lower-case viking" again.
You probably didn't see the long comment I wrote in response to what I called your smug, glib, over simplistic and of course ill-informed comments that you'd made yesterday all over the responses to the "Agents - which parts of the Renters Reform Bill worry you most?" article because I added it to the end of the list probably after everyone had finished reading it....
...anyhow, exactly the same applies here...
...you're a bit like a wacky doctor cheerfully trying to tell a nervous patient about to be given an unnecessary lobotomy and double leg-amputation he doesn't need that it will hardly affect their running career and most people won't even notice the difference once you've got used to the crutches and wooden legs - that of course give you more possibilities than you'd ever had before!
We can't include real links here (and probably rightly so) but if you replace everything in your address bar after the first forward slash with the following it should take you straight there....
breaking-news/2023/6/renters-reform-bill-is-chance-to-professionalise-sector--proptech-chief#comments14887
Because at the moment, the Landlord still has the right to get their asset back, even if their reasons do not fit entirely into the current tick boxes of S8. As I mentioned above, I have an anti-social tenant, who currently is not bad enough to have an ASBO to be breached, but they are causing nuisance and annoyance to neighbours. Yet under S8, the Judge would not have to grant a possession warrant, so I foresee a S21 in their future. As well as a S8, Court hearing and Bailiff.
Once S21 goes, unless S8 has loopholes like that closed there will be issues. The law should not be able to stop someone getting their asset back, unless it can be proved that the process they followed was deliberately illegal, not using the wrong colour ink, or signing in the wrong spot mistakes, but deliberately setting out to circumvent the law and legal process.
Kristjan, you are talking nonsense as usual. What gives you the right to potificate about landlords, you might just as well be a government or labour spokesperson.
@EM - I completely agree that the " property viking", as he calls himself, is talking nonsense. However I'm a firm believer in the freedom of speech and defend his right to pontificate and spout his garbage.
Barry , freedom of speech went a long time ago. Kristjan is using a forum to postulate, and as l said might just well be a lsbour spokesman, which is what he really is. Sounds to me as though his ancestors took people from Britain to Scandinavia, promising a better life, ie slavery.
@EM - although we are in agreement as usual on most of the points you make, I beg to differ about freedom of speech being finished...
Obviously we're now a very long way from being able to openly express - and *publish* - opinions in public on a great many "sensitive" topics, even when those opinions are often widely help and tacitly supported.
BUT whilst its under incredible threat a big part of the problem is meek acceptances of "the new rules" when compliance is really just optional, plus something called "diffuse responsibility" (Google that if you haven't come across it before - its a big subject and a big problem in all sorts of situations for society in general) even though we absolutely all have some responsibility and also some ability to make a difference (without necessarily chancing our arms)...
Let's not make the mistake of policing and enforcing something we don't agree with just because we think there's no choice even though there is.
Edwin and Barry
That is why I will be voting Reform UK. Closest thing to a genuine Conservative Party.
Please login to comment