The Renters Rights Bill will be back in the Commons for final approval on Wednesday.
Once the Commons agrees on the final wording of the Bill, which is expected to happen after a short debate on Wednesday, the Bill can then signed into law by the King. This is expected to happen almost immediately.
Earlier this week Peers in the House of Lords voted to reject several proposals that would have balanced the legislation. These included:
- Rejecting reducing the “no re-let” period to six months after a landlord evicts a tenant to sell the home. This means landlords will still be banned from re-letting a property for 12 months if they evict a tenant to sell the home, making it harder for unscrupulous landlords to abuse the system;
- Rejecting extending the student possession grounds to one and two bedroom properties, which would have put postgraduate and mature students at risk of eviction at the end of the academic year;
- Rejecting a proposal for landlords to request an additional pet deposit. We believe the existing five weeks’ rent is enough to cover damage by a pet;
- Rejecting a new possession ground for a landlord to evict a tenant if they wanted to house a carer. We thought this could have been easily abused by landlords to evict.
The government has yet to say whether it will confirm an implementation date for provisions to be introduced at Royal Assent, or at later date.
The National Residential Landlords Association says it expects tenancy reforms to be the first changes to be introduced, on a given ‘commencement date’ – with other provisions, such as the introduction of ombudsman and landlord database to come later.
