What is happening with the Renter’s Reform Bill in 2024? 

There have long been calls to reform the UK housing market’s private rental sector, which is said to include over 11 million tenants and 2 million landlords. Indeed, the current government committed to abolishing Section 21 “no fault” evictions, one of the major sticking points for tenants in fear of losing their homes, as part of their 2019 manifesto.  

In June 2022, the government outlined its intention to completely reform the rental sector and improve housing quality via a white paper called A fairer private rented sector. This led to the introduction of the Renter’s Reform Bill on 17 May 2023.  

Alongside strengthening the rights of tenants and improving housing quality, the Bill also seeks to protect the rights of landlords and their ability to fairly repossess their properties and is thought to be the most wide-reaching legislation introduced for private renters and landlords in the last 30 years. 

In addition to the removal of “no fault” evictions, some of the main proposals in the Bill which have been debated by MPs over the last 12 months are:  

• A move to rolling tenancies, ending periodic 6, 12 or 24 month contracts. 
• A move to end rent review clauses to prevent automatic rent increases which do not reflect market value or “back door” evictions by means of unaffordable rent increases.  
• The establishment of the first ombudsman in England, the Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman, to resolve landlord and tenant disputes more quickly. 
• Enforcement of the Decent Homes Standard. 
• Establishment of a Privately Rented Property Portal to assist landlords with their legal obligations and demonstrate their compliance, provide tenants with support when they enter into a tenancy agreement and help local councils to target enforcement activity appropriately. 
• New rules which mean landlords cannot have an outright ban on families with children or those on benefits as prospective tenants. 
• New rules which allow tenants the legal right to have pets in their home. 
• Providing landlords with a better and easier process for seeking possession due to rent arrears, anti-social behaviour or if they wish to sell their rental property.  
• Providing local councils with better enforcement powers.  

On 24 April 2024, the Bill was considered by the House of Commons for the final time before being passed to the House of Lords for consideration at its first reading on 1 May 2024.  

As a result of scrutiny by MPs in the House of Commons, the following amendments were made to the Bill before it was presented to the House of Lords: 

• Once the Bill becomes a law, the abolition of “no fault” evictions is now anticipated only after a review is completed of the county court system’s ability to cope with possession cases. Sensible, but in practice this means that there is no concrete date for the removal of Section 21 evictions. A six months’ notice period for Section 21 notices being formally outlawed has also been re-confirmed by The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).  

• A provision to govern when tenants can serve notice under an assured tenancy. In essence, this means that notice cannot be served within the first six months of the tenancy unless there is a serious issue that the Landlord has failed to address.  

So, what happens next?  

The House of Lords will consider the Renter’s Reform Bill at a second and third reading in addition to the Report and Committee Stage assessments. There will then be a period of time (known informally as ‘ping-pong’) when the House of Commons and House of Lords debate the Bill before agreeing to any final amendments. The Bill is then presented to the King for Royal Assent, after which the Bill becomes an Act of Parliament (a Law).  

The Bill’s progress can be followed here: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3462  

Of course, now the pressure is on for the Renter’s Reform Bill to reach Royal Assent and be passed as a Law before parliament is dissolved for a general election, since any new governing party does not need to commit to the pledges and manifestos of a previous party and the Bill runs the risk of being kicked into the long grass should the Conservatives not win the next general election. Whilst the official date for the election is unknown, it is anticipated in the autumn or winter months of 2024, which does not leave a great deal of time given that there will also be a summer recess period inbetween.