I watched the recordings of witnesses giving evidence to the Renters Rights Bill committee last night and today, which was fascinating.
The witnesses was a real roll call of all concerned about the Private Rented Sector, starting with Ben Beadle of the NRLA, and Teresa Wallace of the Lettings Industry Council, and then including witnesses from the tenant’s organisations (Shelter, the CAB, and Generation Rent), a lady from the CLA and the Housing Ombudsman.
You can watch the morning session here.
Then, in the afternoon, we had lawyers, including barrister Justin Bates KC (who will be giving a talk to Landlord Law members on the bill on 12 November) and Giles Peaker, who writes the wonderful Nearly Legal Blog. Then there were witnesses from Unipol student homes, Unipol student homes, the British Property Federation, Propertymark, the National Housing Federation, Local Government and Environmental Health representatives and a lady from Acorn. Apologies to anyone I have missed out.
You can watch the afternoon session here.
Some of the themes and topics raised included the following:
- Most people said the real problem is supply which is not really addressed in this bill.
- There was concern about unintended consequences if the bill was rushed through. For example putting off landlords from entering the PRS, which Matthew Pennycook, the Minister, said he does not want.
- Several witnesses, including Tim Douglas of Propertymark in particular, were unhappy about the abolition of fixed terms, which, in their experience, is something tenants want as it gives them security
- There was concern about the type of evidence that would be required for ground 1A, witnesses feeling that just having the landlord’s statement that they were intending to sell would be inadequate
- The tenant organisations were concerned about rent increases being ‘eviction through the backdoor’ and want the increases to be capped in some way, either by a percentage of the existing rent or by being linked to something like inflation. Pointing out that if rent is increased by a large percentage, this is not something most tenants can afford, even if it is actually the market rent
- They were also concerned about advance payments being a way for landlords to get around the prohibition on bidding wars
- The lady from Unicom said that she thought ‘off street’ student accommodation should have parity with purpose-built student accommodation and pointed out that the possession ground being limited to HMOs would exclude a large amount of student housing, which was for two or one occupiers. She suggested there be a ‘student tenancy’ type available for genuine student accommodation, and a ‘cooling-off’ period which would discourage early signups.
- The lady from Acorn (an impressive witness) said that the bill needed to address the problem of illegal eviction, which could arise if landlords were unable to use no-fault eviction, and mentioned police training – something we have discussed on this blog in the past. She also mentioned that the normal fine was too low to be a proper deterrent
- She referred to problems for tenants with delays in getting urgent repairs done and suggested that tenants be allowed to withhold rent pending the repair work. This could be included as part of the Awaabs law rules
- Quite a few witnesses discussed the problem of funding for Local Authorities if they are to be able to properly enforce the measures set out in the bill, and it was pointed out that penalty charge funding, although welcome, is not a reliable income stream.
- Several witnesses said local authority licensing was an important tool, and that it should be made easier for Local Authorities to apply for them, and that they should last for 10 rather than 5 years.
- Some also said they would support mandatory agent training.
- There was also general support for the database, which many felt could be transformational in the sector.
The final witness was the Minister Matthew Pennycook.
Points arising from this were
- The rules for the database will likely to be mostly in secondary legislation so it can be amended over time
- The Bill is one part of the government’s wider agenda for changing the housing landscape. But it will hopefully empower tenants, give them greater security and help them avoid the risk of homelessness
- It looks like there will be an amendment to prevent extortionate demands for rent in advance by landlords
- He confirmed that he did not want an exodus of landlords from the sector but did not see any evidence of this, apart from smaller and ‘overgeared’ and buy-to-let landlords.
- He confirmed that in view of the Scottish experience, they will not be introducing rent controls
- It is difficult to be sure that the bill will work as intended as there has been no major reform for over 30 years, but he thinks they have struck the right balance, keeping some of the sensible provisions from the previous bill
- Their preferred option is to have parity between private and social housing, in particular with the decent homes standards and the Ombudsman.
There will be more work for the committee to do and they will be meeting again next week.
In the meantime, if you are a letting agent, note that I am doing about 10 training courses for Propertymark on Preparing for the Renters Rights Bill.
We, Landlord Law, will also be running some important training in 2025, which I will be announcing later.