This landmark legislation aims to provide greater security for tenants and improve living standards in the rental market.
Key provisions of the Bill include:
Ban on no-fault evictions: Section 21 evictions, which allow landlords to evict tenants without a valid reason, will be abolished.
Limits on rent increases: Landlords will only be allowed to raise rents once a year and to the market rate.
Improved housing standards: The Decent Homes Standard will be extended to the private rented sector, ensuring tenants have safe and habitable homes.
Extension of Awaab’s Law to the Private rented sector: Which will require landlords or their agents to carry out key repairs within a specified timeframe with the exact period to be decided after consultation.
Crackdown on rental bidding wars: Landlords will be required to publish an asking rent and will be prohibited from accepting bids above this price.
End of blanket bans: Landlords will no longer be able to impose blanket bans on tenants based on their benefits or family status.
Decent Homes. The Bill will apply the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector for the first time. Currently, 21% of privately rented homes are considered non-decent and more than 500,000 contain the most serious of hazards, official figures suggest.
Landlords who fail to address serious hazards can be fined up to £7,000 by local councils and may face prosecution for non-compliance
The government argues that these reforms are essential to address the housing crisis and provide tenants with greater protection. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has emphasized the need for a "fairer relationship between tenant and landlord." And the government has said the Bill is “a crucial step” towards ending Britain’s housing crisis, along with its commitment to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years.
However, the Bill has also faced criticism from landlords and letting agents. With comments including: "Our primary concern remains the ability of the courts to deal with the increased workload that will come their way with Section 21, which is why we had taken a hard line with the previous government to secure court improvements ahead of the legislation being passed".
“We can see why the new government wants to inject new pace into reform, and it has made some reassuring commitments to continue to improve the courts.
“Without court reform and improvement, the new system won’t work well and deliver fair access to justice.”
The Bill now faces scrutiny in Parliament and is expected to undergo significant debate and scrutiny before becoming law.
We will keep you updated as the bill progresses
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