Renters Reform Bill - major changes likely at Committee Stage

I emailed our local mp and pointed out according to govt housing survey only 4% of tenants had their tenancy ended by LL when they did not wish to leave. So if the majority of these cases wld be to sell/rent arrears or ASB - how many tenants will RRB benefit and they shld do a cost benefit analysis. Mr Freeman made sympathetic noises and did nothing. Our local reform candidate in breckland is anti RRB!

That is very interesting Catherine.

I wonder if the Reform Party would favour all tenancies being governed by common law i.e. the law of contract and previous relevant case decisions, rather than the Housing Acts.

You are absolutely right Catherine; things are going to get worse for tenants. Many landlords are not going to be prepared to hand over their properties indefinitely.

This extremist legislation has set the framework for tenancies under a Labour Government, too. They have pledged to give tenants even more rights which is so short-sighted of them. Haven't they looked at the historical data at all? Don't they realise that in Scotland existing tenancies continued to be shorthold assured tenancies so that the housing market didn't collapse with the "reforms" there?

They appear hell bent on the destruction of the PRS 🤔 I don’t even think they have given tenants any thought at all 🥲

It seems like that, Simon.

Catharine, I am an accredited member of the NRLA. In fact I have been a member for almost twelve years. I participate in all surveys, but do not recall one particularly on abolition of Section 21.

I send a message on Instagram to Ben Beadle, specifically telling him that Mr. Beadle on the issue of Section 21, "you sold us out". He came back furiously defending his stance by saying that he was pushing for the court system to be somehow overhauled and become fit for the purpose, before Section 21 is abolished. My point was that the same way Shelter, Generation Rent and Acorn are pushing for the abolition of Section 21, the NRLA as our representative, must fight to keep this vital Section operative for landlord at the end of the tenancies.

I further explained to him that by making sure that the courts speed up the hearing of the cases, your problems would not be solved. Those of you who have been through operation of Section 8, fully well know that the judge will not give you more than five or ten minutes, if you lucky, to hear your case. Then all you need is a clever tenant come on the hearing and "cough" in front of the honourable district judge and falsely claim mould and disrepair. Something that was never been mentioned before. Now you have got yourself a counter claim. The tenant is entitled to legal aid and surveyor's fees.

The arrears will be written off against the compensation claim from the tenant side. On a case of rent arrears, the most common cases under Section 8 for obtaining an eviction order, you will have to start all over again waiting for the rent arrears to add up to two months and pay legal and surveyor fees . Cut the long story short, you will be thousands of pounds out of pocket with no fault of your own.

Like Ellie said, I am now 66 and have been a landlord since 1983, I know what will happen when Section 21 is abolished and open ended tenancies are introduced. So for these reasons and as a matter of experience, I am out.

I never saw or heard of a survey. I heard him at an online meeting / committee with Shelter, the government, Generation Rant etc. When asked about his view on S21 going he just shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't have a problem with that". That's the leader of the NRLA talking. Unforgiveable.

As per Fery's post I can see a never ending cycle happening of arrears and counterclaims. As landlords we are all self funding paying expensive fees while the tenants are all legal aided and pay for nowt.

This RRB is an absolute disaster.

Exactly Nick. Once the tenant brings a counterclaim on damp or disrepair, the acting solicitors instruct a chartered surveyor to carry out a full survey similar to HHSRS inspections. You can bet your bottom dollar that in a house built prior to 1917 without cavity you are bound to find some sort of minor defect, most probably or certainly unreported by the tenant. Once you are notified about the defect, you will have to remedy that, then instruct your own surveyor, since the first one took instructions from the tenant. And the nightmare continues.

Well said. All these MPs like Gove and Rayner all have big ideas with OTHER PEOPLE's PROPERTY... Kiers at PMQs pulling heart strings about 'Alicia and her 2 children' getting a 'no fault eviction'. I bet Alicia deserved her very much at fault eviction; and even if it wasn't deserved I bet the landlord had a very good reason which had nothing to do with repairs of wanting to charge excessive rents.

I have never had the survey, then again half the stuff they do not want to into the public domain they never inform you. What they do though is stick it on the website and you have to physically go to that to find anything.

I do not have the time or inclination to go onto that website when most of it is full of their own self interests and promoting sponsored links. This is my last year with the shower of useless idiots.

They are tone deaf. The lines are drawn. It's one big football now getting kicked around in a race to the bottom. They are all "committed" to doing more and more for tenants which means making them homeless...

@ Nick, not just tone deaf, but wearing blindfolds too.

Paul, might be worth asking Catherine Wright, Jo Westlake or Michael Foley on here if they have been contacted to be on the panel. Doubt it very much but Beadles About will be there for a free lunch and waving his Tradepoint discount card around.

Mostly agreed, but I do not agree that landlords have to accept that S21 will be removed. Older and wiser heads than mine have explained what the PRS was like before S21 and the fear that those days will return. The NRLA have certainly been quiet on the abolition and appear to have meekly rolled over on the matter. Like many I am voting with my feet and gradually selling up. Good luck to those with the stamina and will to stay.

Agree Annoyed. Loss of S21 is a no-go. The NRLA are a disgrace for rolling over.

Th government won't allow a tenants register. There's too much **** out there and they want to protect it even when at fault. Landlords are politically okay to kick with registers, fines, fees etc. But not tenants.

A lot comes down to how things are measured and assessed. I can see lots of issues with 'evidence' being provided and not accepted. A bit like the tenant deposit schemes. It will all be one sided. The evidence required will probably have to be enough for a conviction; albeit they say no conviction would be required. A very small concession and is really just splitting hairs.

They will U turn on most of it, if not they won't be able to house anybody. The only thing though that worries me is if they go political and leave a sh1tshow for labour to clean up (which they won't).

Peter,

I think they are creating a sh1tshow for Labour to clean up. Now they can claim to be looking after renters and being more left wing appealing to a wider audience. If and when it goes wrong it will be for Labour to clear up. But Labour, dummies that they are , want to go further. So the Tories in opposition can claim credit for what will be implemented anyway. If the Tories stay in power they have helped their BTR mates raising the rents. Perhaps more home owners will get more Tory votes. Landlord with any money vote Labour? Perhaps not too many?

Tenants are all entitled to non-means tested legal aid as of about 1 month ago. So justice is free for them. But of course not the landlord.

@ Nick - also Citizens Advice (paid by public and taxpayers) will give advice to tenants and not to landlords, because landlords are businesses.

I deal with one CA person once, sanctimonious ****, who soon learned that it was best to check facts before accusing people.

Exactly. One of the main reasons I’ve been taking my time fixing my old property up for sale rather than rent.