A lot of people have been asking me questions about the Renters Rights Bill and how it will affect them when it is made law.

For example, Landlord Law members on our members forum and delegates on my Propertymark training course on preparing for the Renters Rights Bill.

Many of them I am unable to answer as the bill does not cover the point or it will be set out in regulations.  But we will need answers in due course.

Here are some of the questions I have been asked with comments:

Loss of fixed terms

One popular question is, “Won’t the tenant’s ability to end the tenancy quickly encourage them to use properties like short term Airbnbs?”

The problem here is that short-term holiday lettings are generally a lot more expensive, to take account of the additional work and costs involved. In particular advertising the property, the frequent turnarounds and cleaning involved to make the property ready for the next holiday guests.

However, if tenants can rent a property at a lower rent and end it after two months, whats to stop them lying when they apply and then give notice the day they move in, so as to get cheap accommodation for their holiday?

Also, some areas limit the number of short-term lets – for example, in London, it is 90 days. How will this affect landlords who intend to let a property long term but who find that tenants only stay for a few weeks?

Other questions are

“What will the situation be with ‘common law’ tenancies? For example, company lets, lets to embassies, lets with residential landlords, etc.  Will they be able to have fixed terms?” And also:

“How will this affect ‘short lets’?”   For example, if people rent out their property for six months while they work abroad. Will they be able to recover their home when they come back? If they are unable to do this they will be forced to leave the property empty?  It’s not good for the security of the property or for the housing crisis, for these properties to be left empty.

Pets

Questions include

• “If the arrangement is that the tenant pays the pet insurance, will the landlord/agent be able to monitor this to ensure that premiums are being paid?”
• “What can the landlord/agent do if the tenant stops paying the premiums? Will it be a ground for eviction?”
• “Can the landlord take into account the increased wear and tear where there is a pet when increasing the rent? Will the FTT take account of this when reviewing the rent?”

Then, there is the definition of ‘pet’.  An assistance animal for disability would not meet the definition of a ‘pet’ – given the proposed definition due to be inserted into section 45(1) of the HA 1988.  So presumably, requests for these animals would not have to follow the same timescales?

Also, a disabled tenant is often not the owner of an assistance pet – how would this affect the tenancy agreement and the need for insurance against damage?

What about other ‘working animals’ which are not assistance animals – for example, sniffer dogs, regimental goats, therapy animals (e.g. the dogs, alpacas, horses, etc, who go into hospitals, schools and old people’s homes to help residents with their mental health), etc. How would they be affected?

The property portal

A common question is “Will this be accessible to all members of the public?” If so, many are asking, will the landlords private address be visible? This could result in landlords receiving unwanted junk mail, being vulnerable to scammers and maybe hostile visits from tenants’ organisations. It could also be prejudicial to ‘high profile’ landlords.

The legislation says the landlords need to notify the portal if they have ‘been convicted of offences’. Will this just be housing-related offences, or will it be all types of offences?

Tenancy agreements

What will landlords and agents need to do about existing tenancy agreements when the new Act comes into force?

For example, will they have to serve a notice on tenants informing them that their tenancy is now periodic and of the new prescribed terms? Or will they have to serve a ‘conversation tenancy agreement’ along the lines of the ‘conversion contracts’ that landlords had to serve in Wales, when the new Welsh legislation came into force in 2022?

Or will they have to re-issue new tenancy agreements, and if so, will they also have to re-serve all the other documentation that needs to be served at that time (How to Rent booklet, certificates, etc). What if the tenant refuses to sign it?

The whole question of what will need to have to be done about tenancy agreements is causing a lot of concern.  I discussed it in more detail on this post.

Rent issues

There are a lot of questions about the level of rent and concern that the market rents will decline (as happened under the Rent Act).

For example: “Will the ‘market rent’ be assessed by the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) from the current market rent at the time of the FTT assessment. Or will it go back to what the market rent was at the time of the section 13 notice was served?”

This could be quite significant, particularly if the FTT is not able to deal with the assessment for several months due to a large caseload.

Then, will tenants be allowed to pay quarterly? For example, many students pay quarterly in line with their student loans. Will they be able to pay quarterly or longer in advance if they want to?

Many properties are in blocks where Landlord service charges increase annually. There are concerns that permitted rent increases will not keep pace with this.

What will happen about ‘bills included’ rents? These are common for student lets for example. What can landlords do if the utility costs increase dramatically?

Students

One student landlord on our forum asked “Will students working on a placement are considered to be full time students for the purposes of ground 4a? If not they will not be able to share with student friends in future.  What about Masters and Phd students enrolled on part-time courses? Will they be included? Otherwise this group could be negatively impacted.”

Changing tenants

What happens if the tenant gives Notice to Quit (NTQ) but then fails to vacate?

How will this affect joint and several tenancies? Bearing in mind that all tenancies will be periodic, so the NTQ will end the tenancy for everyone.

Eviction

Landlords are concerned about time limits and dates of service.  For example “Can the landlord serve a ground 1 and 1A notice after 8 months, meaning that they can issue proceedings after 12 months, or do they have to wait until after the first 12 months before they can serve the section 8 notice?”

“For existing tenancies at the commencement date, will the 12 month protected period for grounds 1 and 1A run from the start of the tenancy or from the commencement date?”

And then, “If a landlord recovers possession under ground 1A but is then unable to sell it, will they be able to relet, say after 6 months?”

The questioner then commented that it doesn’t help the housing shortage, allowing a vacant /rentable property to sit there waiting another 6 months to be ‘allowed’ to be rented again.

In this connection, some Councils charge a higher Council tax for properties which are empty for longer than 6 months.

And finally

Landlords and agents are in a difficult position just now.  They are having to issue new tenancy agreements – for example to new tenants or where a fixed term is being renewed, but they don’t know what the rules governing those tenancies in a few months are going to be.

It would be helpful if some indication could be given by government, in particular about the questions above.

If YOU have any burning questions about the legislation – put them in the comments below.  I will endeavour to bring them to the attention of the government.

The post Unanswered questions about the Renters Rights Bill appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.

Welcome to another Landlord Law Newsround, where we bring you all the latest housing news that has hit the headlines this week.

The best solution to the UK housing crisis

An interesting post from LandlordZone reporting on information from SpareRoom and saying that people taking in more lodgers could be the solution to our housing crisis.

However SpareRoom data shows that the number of rooms have actually dropped since 2017, while the number looking for a room has tripled over the past 10 years.

It seems that, according to ONS there are around 26 million spare rooms in the UK so even if a small percentage of these were rented out to lodgers, it would go a long way to solving the current problems.  Particuarly, I would suggest, for single people and students.

I know how helpful the money can be as I rented out a room to students back in the 1990’s when I had just bought my house, and funds were low.

There is often a particular problem with tenants renting to lodgers, but I have a suggestion for government in my post here.  Raising the ‘rent a room’ allowance would also help.

Will the Renters Rights Bill deter landlords from investing?

‘No’ says Housing Under Secretary Baroness Taylor of Stevenage who said in a recent debate that they “do not expect it to have a destabilising effect on the market”.  Indeed, she hopes it will make things better.

Although she agreed that there is an imblance between supply and demand, she denied that there was an “exodus from the market”.  Citing a study from the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence and saying

There was no evidence that that has had an impact. In fact, the PRS has doubled in size since 2002 and is now the second largest housing tenure, with over 11 million people living in the private rented sector.

We will continue to do what we can to support both landlords and tenants in that sector,

adding that she was looking forward to “working with the House to deliver a very effective piece of renters’ rights legislation”.

Half of homes not equipped to deal with extreme weather

AXA has published a report that shows areas most vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather and that more than half of people polled said their homes were not equipped to deal with flooding or extreme heat.

They are probably correct.  What about YOUR home?

The key findings of the report are:

• Flooding is perceived to be the greatest risk in the next 10 years by 55% of those polled, followed by severe storms (48%) and rising sea levels (47%).
• London is most vulnerable to combined climate risks of flooding and extreme heat.
• Coastal areas of the East Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber, as well as areas in the Southeast and London, are most vulnerable to flood risks.
• Homes and businesses in England with the highest chance of flooding face at least £818m in financial costs by 2055.
• Despite admitting having concerns about climate-related property damage, more than half (52%) of those polled said they would be unprepared to deal with the impacts of flooding or extreme heat on their property.
• Nearly half (48%) of those polled said they had never checked if their home insurance covered them for the effects of extreme heat, which can cause cracking and subsidence.

The full report can be found here.

What will the PRS Database contain?

The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has laid out what it considers important:

At a minimum, gas and electricity safety certificates should be fully digitised so they can be easily uploaded onto the database, alongside already digitised Energy Performance Certificates.

The database should also include a signed declaration by a landlord which confirms that a property meets the requirements of the planned decent homes standard for the sector.

Otherwise, they say, it will not help tenants determine whether properties are safe or not.  CEO Ben Beadle saying

The database of private rented properties must go beyond a basic directory. It needs to provide tenants with clear, meaningful information designed to empower informed decisions on their next home.

This will help tenants identify the vast majority of homes that are safe, secure and well-managed by responsible landlords.

It would be a travesty if the database simply became a bureaucratic list of homes and landlords with little else besides.

However, does the NRLA speak for the industry?  Some are questioning this.

The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association speaks up for small landlords

A plea to the government to help small landlords has been made by the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association, which has a new report out on the Vital role of the RPS.

This has six main recommendations:

• Give greater recognition to the importance of the PRS, which provides homes for just under 20% of UK households.
• Acknowledge that small landlords form the backbone of the sector.
• Recognise that, as with any industry, increased regulatory costs will push up prices.
• Accept that increased risk for landlords will require higher returns.
• Acknowledge the ability of the market to drive up standards in the PRS.
• Apply policy more fairly across tenures

The report can be downloaded here.

Snippets

New tech enables landlords to make money from solar
Property industry redress provider celebrates 10 years with rebrand
Looming open-ended tenancies to have ‘unintended consequences for tenants’
Too many buildings remain unsafe after Grenfell disaster, housing minister warns
Queueing through the night for student accommodation

See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law

Newsround will be back again next week

The post Landlord Law Newsround #367 appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.