How will Renters’ Rights Bill change logistics of student rental market?

How will Renters’ Rights Bill change logistics of student rental market?

0:01 AM, 21st January 2025, About A day ago 12

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Hi, still trying to get my head around how this is going to work in practice. I work within a small agency which specialises in student homes.

A surprisingly large portion of our homes are 1 and 2 bedroom options for students. However, from what I can see, there isn’t any provision to offer this in the future as there will be no guarantee when the current tenants will move out.

I can’t see that we have any choice but to remove these from the student market which seems unfair to the tenants that don’t want to live in larger homes.

I’m also trying to work out how a tenant, say in an 8-bed home on a joint AST (currently) would have the option to essentially end the tenancy for all, two months into the contract. I appreciate this won’t happen often but the risk factor to landlords is huge – so trying to see the benefits to tenants that want some security? The upheaval in the middle of term would be massive.

Lastly the marketing of homes is causing me confusion. In Newcastle homes are typically let between mid October-January. Does the proposed legislation mean that advertising could still happen ‘early’ but then the contracts not agreed until 6 months before the start date. Not having at least some option to exercise the 4A possession ground feels like far too big of a risk?

The student market is so specific, I appreciate I’m biased but on the whole it works ok. There has been so much legislation in recent times to improve the quality of housing that it feels this really will create the opposite effect – forcing good landlords out of the market and creating such an unstable market for student house shares that they will be forced to live in sub-par homes just to have somewhere to live.

Not looking for a specific answer,  just to see if anyone had any ideas with how to navigate this?

Thanks,

Ellen


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Yvonne Francis

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16:24 PM, 21st January 2025, About 15 hours ago

Reply to the comment left by Jo Westlake at 21/01/2025 - 15:50
I don't know why you bring up all the things the student should know. I'm sure most adverts for these houses have all these things and what is not said can be worked out by monthly rents.

I expect most landlords would like a September start date but the RRB have put this at a great disadvantage. If you read my first comment then I try and explain in order to protect one's self the tenancy should start much earlier in the year. I did mention 1st June but I only mentioned this as that's the earliest date you can legally have it if you want to be able to bring the tenancy to an end. You would have it sometime later to cover the terms of your student tenants.

Urban Landlord

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17:22 PM, 21st January 2025, About 14 hours ago

The 2 month notice will kill us. We rent out 4 bedroom properties with communal living spaces in London and the work required to get the students in and out in September is considerable and involved. If this becomes law we will have tenants leaving whenever they want. Just yesterday I had 1 student saying he hardly goes into university so he will just move back home. In this instance he said he would try and find a replacement tenant but in the future they will just hand in their notice. The problem in London will be acute and we are considering getting out of the student market which means around 100 4 beds between me and my friends/acquaintances will come out of the student and young professional market in zone 1/2 borders. We will have a massive reduction in rent but its something we will have to absorb. Our tenants love living in our places as we provide a high level of customer service and are small enough to care but big enough to have resources to ensure things are done very quickly and to a high standard.

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