Friday is the 1st May 2026, and the day when stage 1 of the long-awaited Renters Rights Act 2025 comes into force.
This is a big act and will bring about big changes.
Long term, the changes will undoubtedly be as significant as the changes brought in by the Housing Act 1988, more than 30 years ago (as I discussed here).
In this series of posts, I will be discussing six issues which I think will be instruments of change. My first issue is
The loss of section 21 no-fault evictions
This is the ‘headline’ change brought about by the new legislation and the one that people tend to talk about the most. I discussed some of these issues in my post here.
Although the loss of section 21 is not the only significant change, there is no doubt that its loss will bring about big changes.
Here are some of the changes that I think will follow:
Tenants will feel empowered
One of the problems tenants face is that if they challenge their landlord in any way, for example, requesting them to do repair work, or challenging rent increases, they are always aware that landlords have the right to evict them arbitrarily (after their fixed term has ended).
Now, many landlords will have no intention of doing this, but the fact remains that if they wanted to, they could.
And tenants, aware of the shortage of suitable accommodation, tend to play safe and accept what comes along, as they do not want to risk losing their home.
However, once the Renters’ Rights Act comes into force, this implied threat will no longer be there. So, once in occupation, tenants will be able to:
- Refuse to sign documentation such as guarantees and new tenancy agreements – unless it is in their interest to do so
- Challenge rent increases to the First Tier Tribunal, and
- Request landlords to carry out essential repair work, and bring claims for compensation if they don’t
The change will also probably have the effect of allowing them to remain in the property for longer. Indeed, it sounds from articles in the press as if tenants are already looking to do this.
Note by the way that landlords still have the ‘no fault’ grounds to evict if they want to live in the property themselves or sell it (grounds 1 and 1A). But if they then re-let the property within 12 months, they can be fined up to £40,000.
So many, if not most, landlords will not be willing to risk this.
Landlords losing rights over ‘their’ property
Many landlords will be unhappy about what they will see as a loss of rights over ‘their property’, particularly their ability to get it back as of right.
But the trouble is, once a property is let under a tenancy, it is no longer ‘their’ property. This has always been the case. A tenancy is a type of lease, which is one of the two main legal interests in land as per section 1 of the Law of Property Act 1925.
Which is why in some of my older posts, I referred to tenants ‘owning’ their rented property.
When a landlord rents a property to a tenant, they are exchanging the rights they currently have over it (such as the right to enter it when they want and deal with it as they wish) for the right to receive rent, and the right to get the property back when the tenancy ends (known to lawyers as the ‘reversion’).
Many landlords totally fail to realise this. This is largely due to the no-fault section 21 eviction procedure, which has allowed them to recover possession in circumstances which will now no longer be possible. It has also enabled the less pleasant and rogue landlords to bully their tenants into compliance.
The abolition of section 21 alone will bring about big changes in attitudes and in the power balance between landlords and tenants.
Tomorrow I will be looking at the loss of fixed terms.
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