Renters Reform White Paper – Full details published

Propertymark respond:

"Our sector provides around 4.4 million households in England with a place to live. Property is a good long-term investment but the number of property owners choosing to withdraw from this area is growing. That’s the result of a decade of tax and regulatory burden that simply does not incentivise investment, especially for single property landlords who make up 43 per cent of the market.

The private rental market is already under huge strain with renters outstripping available properties and we need to be able to attract new investment.

If Ministers really do want to create a 'fairer private rented sector', they must work with us to ensure these reforms are carefully balanced and any interventions to achieve short-term objectives do not constrain the market in the longer term."

Any idea what an arbitrary rent increase is? A bit like the expression 'wilfully withholding ' rent.
The devil will be in the detail.

I'm confused a 5th did not leave their rental by choice, that's 20% but only 8% were asked to leave by the landlord, so surely only 8% didn't leave by choice --

The government needs to
Look at themselves before haranguing private land lords the recent ITV exposé where shocking and funnily enough all council property !

The devil will be in the detail. But glad I have more or less got out of the PRS.

Abusive tenants, non-paid ABSO and immigration officer and now the Renters Bill not worth the hassle providing accommodation to those on benefits which I always have done.

Looking forward to a peaceful life!

someone else commented: "Why don't fuel suppliers have to give longer notice of petrol increases or only be allowed to increase once every 12 months and be challenged on unfair rises?"
Sounds reasonable to me

Eddie Hooker, CEO of the Hamilton Fraser Group, who operate industry schemes such as Total Landlord Insurance, the Property Redress Scheme and Client Money Protect says:

“Having waited three years for this White Paper, we had a good idea of what the rental reforms would look like, and I welcome the Government’s intention to improve the private rented sector to make it more robust and fairer for both landlords and tenants for the long-term.

A more effective legal framework will ultimately help to create a more stable market for landlords to invest in. These proposals confirm the direction of travel, but the devil will be in the detail of the legislation.

Giving more power to the tenant, for example by restricting the rights of landlords to determine when a tenant should actually have to vacate at the end of a tenancy and to force landlords to accept renters that are on benefits, no matter how temporary, could send a signal that investing in the private rental sector is an uncertain and undesirable endeavour.

It’s vital that the eventual legislation doesn’t deter landlords from the sector as this will cause more landlords to exit, exacerbating an existing shortage of rental homes and driving up rents at a time when interest rates are rising faster than they have done in decades, and when people can least afford it.

Whilst landlords are frequently portrayed as fat-cat institutions that have no regard for tenants, the truth is that most are decent people with just one or two investment homes which form part or all of their income or retirement plans and to continue to squeeze them would be counter-productive.”

It seems to have abolished the concept of a minimum 6 month tenancy term. Effectively that turns all properties into holiday lets doesn't it? Surely if landlords have no certainty of at least 6 months rent they will price far more properties at holiday let prices.

How is the student market going to work if students can just bail mid tenancy? The only way that could possibly work would be if Council Tax exemptions were abolished so students could be replaced with professionals. How will it work if one student wants to leave a joint tenancy? Will they bully and coerce their housemates to give up their home? In student HMOs on individual tenancy agreements it would massively change the whole student experience if random professionals or benefit claimants were put in to replace a departing student.

Some of the proposals look OK but others really haven't been properly thought through.

Can anyone with experience of the process of Bills becoming law give some indication of the likely timing of this please? Ie how long do you think it will take to be enacted?

Also, I couldn't find a link to the white paper - will S21 ban be retrospective for existing tenancies?

These ministers need to take a long hard look at themselves and stop blaming landlords for social housing shortages.