17th
Jun 2022
The government has finally released the full details of its Fairer Private Rented Sector White Paper.
It fully outlines the government’s intentions for its incoming Renters Reform Bill of the private rented sector:
As forever mooted Section 21 evictions will be banned evictions and there will be further ‘improvements’ to the Decent Homes Standard for the PRS.
The government fully intends to abolish what it says are “arbitrary rent review clauses, give tenants stronger powers to challenge poor practice, unjustified rent increases and enable them to be repaid rent for non-decent homes.”
It will become illegal for agents and landlords to have a policy not to rent out their properties to those who receive benefits or to families with children.
Landlords will have to consider a tenant’s right to live with pets and cannot without good reason or cause to refuse them of doing so.
All renters will have to be ‘switched over’ to the one system of periodic tenancies which the government says “they can leave poor quality housing without remaining liable for the rent or move more easily when their circumstances change.”
Tenancies can only be ended if a landlord has a valid reason or if the tenant decides to end it.
Tenants will have to be given a doubled period of notice when a landlord notifies them of a rent increase and will have much strengthened rights to challenge it if they think it is unfair.
The government says it will be: “giving councils stronger powers to tackle the worst offenders, backed by enforcement pilots, and increasing fines for serious offences.”
The government is setting up a new Private Renters’ Ombudsman which will be responsible for attempting to mediate tenant and landlords disputes far quicker and cheaper than having to go court.
Those who the government calls “responsible landlords” will be able to repossess properties from anti-social tenants “and can sell their properties when they need to.”
A new property portal will be set up so as to “provide a single front door to help landlords to understand, and comply with, their responsibilities as well as giving councils and tenants the information they need to tackle rogue operators.”
The government says: “These reforms will help to ease the cost of living pressures renters are facing, saving families from unnecessarily moving from one privately rented home to another hundreds of pounds in moving costs.
“We have already taken significant action over the past decade to improve private renting, including reducing the proportion of non-decent private rented homes from 37 to 21 per cent, capping tenancy deposits and banning tenancy fees for tenancy agreements signed after 1 June 2019, and introducing pandemic emergency measures to ban bailiff evictions.
“While the majority of private rented homes are of good quality, offering safe, comfortable accommodation for families, the conditions of more than half a million properties – or 12 per cent of households - pose an imminent risk to tenants’ health and safety, meaning around 1.6 million people are living in dangerously low-quality homes, driving up costs for our health service.
“The sector offers the most expensive, least secure, and lowest quality housing to millions of renters, including 1.3 million households with children and 382,000 households over 65. Rents are also rising at their fastest level for five years. This can damage life chances and hold back some of the most deprived parts of the country.”
Housing Secretary Michael Gove said: “For too long many private renters have been at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords who fail to repair homes and let families live in damp, unsafe and cold properties, with the threat of unfair ‘no fault’ evictions orders hanging over them.
“Our New Deal for renters will help to end this injustice by improving the rights and conditions for millions of renters as we level up across the country and deliver on the people’s priorities.”
Richard Merrick of PIMS,said: “ In one of the clauses it hands power to tenants who in some cases can ‘cite invented’ reasons to leave a property breaking a tenancy agreement and legally stop paying their rent.
“In many cases where mould is a problem it is caused by tenants themselves who cannot be bothered to open their windows to properly ventilate the property when drying clothes……and of course it is the landlords fault.
Richard adds: “ Along with today’s base rate rise and landlords leaving the sector because of the draconian tax and legislative changes, supply and demand market forces will determine rent increases.”
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