Unanswered questions about the Renters Rights Bill

A lot of people have been asking me questions about the Renters Rights Bill and how it will affect them when it is made law.

For example, Landlord Law members on our members forum and delegates on my Propertymark training course on preparing for the Renters Rights Bill.

Many of them I am unable to answer as the bill does not cover the point or it will be set out in regulations.  But we will need answers in due course.

Here are some of the questions I have been asked with comments:

Loss of fixed terms

One popular question is, “Won’t the tenant’s ability to end the tenancy quickly encourage them to use properties like short term Airbnbs?”

The problem here is that short-term holiday lettings are generally a lot more expensive, to take account of the additional work and costs involved. In particular advertising the property, the frequent turnarounds and cleaning involved to make the property ready for the next holiday guests.

However, if tenants can rent a property at a lower rent and end it after two months, whats to stop them lying when they apply and then give notice the day they move in, so as to get cheap accommodation for their holiday?

Also, some areas limit the number of short-term lets – for example, in London, it is 90 days. How will this affect landlords who intend to let a property long term but who find that tenants only stay for a few weeks?

Other questions are

“What will the situation be with ‘common law’ tenancies? For example, company lets, lets to embassies, lets with residential landlords, etc.  Will they be able to have fixed terms?” And also:

“How will this affect ‘short lets’?”   For example, if people rent out their property for six months while they work abroad. Will they be able to recover their home when they come back? If they are unable to do this they will be forced to leave the property empty?  It’s not good for the security of the property or for the housing crisis, for these properties to be left empty.

Pets

Questions include

• “If the arrangement is that the tenant pays the pet insurance, will the landlord/agent be able to monitor this to ensure that premiums are being paid?”
• “What can the landlord/agent do if the tenant stops paying the premiums? Will it be a ground for eviction?”
• “Can the landlord take into account the increased wear and tear where there is a pet when increasing the rent? Will the FTT take account of this when reviewing the rent?”

Then, there is the definition of ‘pet’.  An assistance animal for disability would not meet the definition of a ‘pet’ – given the proposed definition due to be inserted into section 45(1) of the HA 1988.  So presumably, requests for these animals would not have to follow the same timescales?

Also, a disabled tenant is often not the owner of an assistance pet – how would this affect the tenancy agreement and the need for insurance against damage?

What about other ‘working animals’ which are not assistance animals – for example, sniffer dogs, regimental goats, therapy animals (e.g. the dogs, alpacas, horses, etc, who go into hospitals, schools and old people’s homes to help residents with their mental health), etc. How would they be affected?

The property portal

A common question is “Will this be accessible to all members of the public?” If so, many are asking, will the landlords private address be visible? This could result in landlords receiving unwanted junk mail, being vulnerable to scammers and maybe hostile visits from tenants’ organisations. It could also be prejudicial to ‘high profile’ landlords.

The legislation says the landlords need to notify the portal if they have ‘been convicted of offences’. Will this just be housing-related offences, or will it be all types of offences?

Tenancy agreements

What will landlords and agents need to do about existing tenancy agreements when the new Act comes into force?

For example, will they have to serve a notice on tenants informing them that their tenancy is now periodic and of the new prescribed terms? Or will they have to serve a ‘conversation tenancy agreement’ along the lines of the ‘conversion contracts’ that landlords had to serve in Wales, when the new Welsh legislation came into force in 2022?

Or will they have to re-issue new tenancy agreements, and if so, will they also have to re-serve all the other documentation that needs to be served at that time (How to Rent booklet, certificates, etc). What if the tenant refuses to sign it?

The whole question of what will need to have to be done about tenancy agreements is causing a lot of concern.  I discussed it in more detail on this post.

Rent issues

There are a lot of questions about the level of rent and concern that the market rents will decline (as happened under the Rent Act).

For example: “Will the ‘market rent’ be assessed by the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) from the current market rent at the time of the FTT assessment. Or will it go back to what the market rent was at the time of the section 13 notice was served?”

This could be quite significant, particularly if the FTT is not able to deal with the assessment for several months due to a large caseload.

Then, will tenants be allowed to pay quarterly? For example, many students pay quarterly in line with their student loans. Accepted that landlords cannot require payment other than monthly/weekly, but will tenants be able to pay quarterly or longer in advance if they want to?

Many properties are in blocks where Landlord service charges increase annually. There are concerns that permitted rent increases will not keep pace with this.

What will happen about ‘bills included’ rents? These are common for student lets for example. What can landlords do if the utility costs increase dramatically?

Students

One student landlord on our forum asked “Will students working on a placement be considered full time students for the purposes of ground 4a? If not, they will not be able to share with student friends in future.  What about Masters and Phd students enrolled on part-time courses? Will they be included? Otherwise, this group could be negatively impacted.”

Changing tenants

What happens if the tenant gives Notice to Quit (NTQ) but then fails to vacate?

How will this affect joint and several tenancies? Bearing in mind that all tenancies will be periodic, so the NTQ will end the tenancy for everyone.

Eviction

Landlords are concerned about time limits and dates of service.  For example, “Can the landlord serve a ground 1 and 1A notice after 8 months, meaning that they can issue proceedings after 12 months, or do they have to wait until after the first 12 months before they can serve the section 8 notice?”

“For existing tenancies at the commencement date, will the 12-month protected period for grounds 1 and 1A run from the start of the tenancy or from the commencement date?”

And then, “If a landlord recovers possession under ground 1A but is then unable to sell it, will they be able to relet, say, after 6 months?”

The questioner then commented that it doesn’t help the housing shortage, allowing a vacant /rentable property to sit there waiting another 6 months to be ‘allowed’ to be rented again.

In this connection, some Councils charge a higher Council tax for properties which are empty for longer than 6 months.

And finally

Landlords and agents are in a difficult position just now.  They are having to issue new tenancy agreements – for example to new tenants or where a fixed term is being renewed, but they don’t know what the rules governing those tenancies in a few months are going to be.

It would be helpful if some indication could be given by government, in particular about the questions above.

If YOU have any burning questions about the legislation – put them in the comments below.  I will endeavour to bring them to the attention of the government.