The Renters (Reform) Bill has finally had its first reading in Parliament, promising a fair deal to renters, faster redress for landlords and giving more details on how ‘pets with lets’ will work.
Heralded as a “once-in-a-generation overhaul of housing laws”, the government vows that as well as setting out to protect tenants, it will also protect more than two million landlords, making it easier for them to recover properties, so they can sell up if they want to, move in a close family member, or when tenants wilfully do not pay rent.
The draft legislation details a beefed-up Section 8 to replace Section 21, a new property portal and how all private landlords will be required to join a landlord redress scheme.
It also explains that tenants will be given the legal right to request a pet in their home, which a landlord must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse. The Bill outlines how tenants must make this request in writing and include a description of their pet.
Refuse
However, a landlord could reasonably refuse if it would cause the landlord to be in breach of an agreement with a superior landlord.
It explains that the landlord would need to give or refuse consent in writing on or before the 42nd day after the date of the request.
A landlord could insist that their tenant gets insurance to cover the risk of pet damage or instead the tenant would have to pay their reasonable costs of maintaining insurance to cover the risk of pet damage.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove says: “Our new laws introduced to Parliament today will support the vast majority of responsible landlords who provide quality homes to their tenants, while delivering our manifesto commitment to abolish Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions.”
MPs will be able to debate the contents when the Bill gets its second reading tomorrow.
Read the Bill in full.
If I have read the pets part properly;
(1) It suggests a Landlord can only refuse a pet if a superior lease dictates no pets.
Hoowever;
(2) Landlords CAN insist that a Tenant pays for the LANDLORDS chosen pet insurance policy, rather than rely on the Tenant taking out and maintaining their own Policy. The Tenant would have to pay the premium for the full insurance term (usually 1 year) even if they got the pet later or they got rid of the pet ie the Landlord would not be out of pocket.
Obviously, the Landlord would choose the most comprehensive Policy available – which is likely the most expensive too.
So, that should solve the pets problem.
It wouldn’t solve any problems at all as the tenant could just cancel the policy & get a refund at any time. The landlord would have no way of knowing this has happened or findinging out it had happened. Complete B.S and another nail in the coffin for BTL.
Less landlords will stick around, less properties available & higher rents – welocome to to the brave new world of renting.
The landlord can insist the tenant pays for the landlords policy
Re Pet Insurance – good call on the most comprehensive cover. Definitely insist on taking out myself as the landlord as tenant is a bit risky. The really ironic thing is after 2 claims the insurance will be extremely expensive for me to take out no doubt thereby making it very prohibitive for tenants.
Be aware that any insurance and that includes pet insurance in a LL name will affect all other insurance that a LL has.
.
That even includes a LL personal vehicle insurance.
Any insurance claim is a ‘material fact’ and MUST be declared for any insurance of whatever type
LL should avoid at all costs giving tenant pet insurance in their name.
That is not true – vehicle insurance is a totally separate thing and claims are not linked to home insurance. Landlord insurance is also separate completely from any personal claim on your home insurance. I’ve never had to disclose any claim across the board.
If you wrongly use the Section 8 Ground of needing the property back for a family member just to be rid of a bad tenant, you cannot market or let the same property for 3 months.
What a Letting Agency WILL do is constantly market the message “Register your interest as we always have new properties coming onto the market to let” – so while you’d have to wait 3 months (which is preferable to waiting for a court eviction), you should have a tenant more or less ready to move in at that time.
Could you put the bills in a family member’s name for a month, then say the family member has moved out, and then let it out?
Good thinking!!
Funny how you already plan to abuse this.
Where there’s a will !!
99.9% of honest Landlords are going to be strongly penalised by this new Legislation – it’s time to fight back.
Of course, the easiest way of resolving the issue for Landlords is to sell up (which is happening despite in huge numbers).
Then Tenants can experience the consequences of idiotic Gov policy.
Not abusing anything just thinking of the best way to continue my business of putting a roof over people’s heads.
Most flats are not suitable for dogs, cats a goldfish would be ok.
The only safe pet is the one in the taxidermists shop window 🙂
Landlords will be required to join an approved Redress Scheme BEFORE marketing a property for letting.
££ ??
The problem is that even a declined Tenant is able to lodge a complaint with the Redress Scheme – but who pays for this “investigation” ?
You can easily have (let’s say) Gen Rent decide all of their members apply for a property and ALL of them lodge a complaint – who pays for this?
I’ve read of £100 charges per dispute !!
Landlords will be required to register both themselves and their properties in a National Register – paying a fee for the privilege of course.
That should bring in a lot of tax revenue from landlords not declaring rental income (as it will be checkable by HMRC, local authority etc) BUT it will also stop a lot of landlords from letting altogether, so reducing the rental stock even further.
Of course, another fee is another rent increase.
A National LL Register will result in mass tenant homelessness.
If only Licenced LL are permitted to let their properties then lots of criminal LL won’t be able to let as it will be a criminal offence to do so.
So what about all those Accidental LL that are letting their residential properties WITHOUT CTL!?
They automatically become criminal LL as you can’t legally let a property without CTL from a lender.
So all those tenants would have to be evicted.
The owners would have to return to their homes or sell.
A LL register is going to cause a run on the banks if LL are detected for their fraud.
Govt is simply unaware kf the nasz fraud in the PRS.
A LL register is a great idea for good LL.
It is a disaster for tenants.
The Big Issue (and many tenants will soon be selling it).
Rent Arrears Eviction – Section 8
A tenant MUST be at least 2 months late with their rent THREE TIMES over the previous 3 year period – but if their benefit is late arriving it does not count as late rent.
ABSOLUTE UTTER MIND-BLOWING MADNESS !!!
Tenants can give just 2 months notice to vacate – no mention I can see of repaying the Landlord for the extra costs to re-market, re-reference, re-inventory etc the property – a Landlord could end up doing this 5 times in a single year.
Any Landlord not at full Market Rent by the time this lot comes in is bonkers.
I’m increasing all rents asap to help mitigate some of this madness & in time will finish selling up what I’ve not sold over the last 3 years.
Section 6 – does this mean that within the first 6 months of a new tenancy a tenant can apply to reduce the rent they have agreed to pay?
A tenant could get a tenancy in a nice holiday place, say the Lake District, at the start of the school summer holidays and immediately give two months’ notice. A nice , relatively cheap, summer holiday.
Yep. But if the property is in a nice holiday area you’d be nuts not doing FHL to begin with.
How about a tenant renting in a tourist location in July, giving the 2 months notice AND THEN sub-letting it for 3, 4 or 7 night holiday rentals during that 2 months. A very nice earner indeed.
Landlords will be Required to join a Redress Scheme another quango like the Deposit Schemes.
Guess what NRLA will be running it another money stream for them and started in advance of the Legislation, now we know what they are participating in at Government meetings instead of Representing us.
So in a HMO room Rental of 5 shares how many pets and who’s room will they live -in it cannot work. I have had to replace all the Carpets in a New House I Built 1978 with NHBS Guarantee and not my first Build either what would I know about Housing now Required to earn CPD points like Child to be Accredited another ponzi Scheme. The garden full of dog crap everywhere, now all those Greenhorns Graduates from Universities think they are Professionals should take a step back and reflect on the damage done to Tenants driving up their Rents by 30%, (fairer renting humm). Mr Gove you know nothing about our Business just leave to the Landlords on the spot who know best, not sitting around tables discussing it with Shelter, Generation and NRLA who don’t Supply any Housing feathers their own nest.
Can a tenant have snakes or poisonous spiders that might escape into an adjacent property/
Cindy. They have them already, snakes, reptiles, rats and live rats imported to feed the snakes, armadillo, cats, dogs, guinea pigs now legalised, do you think I am exaggerating do you want the photos.
The so called Renters Reform Bill has just made this a legal requirement, Mr Gove presumably wouldn’t know any of this with a silver spoon in the mouth or wouldn’t do something so stupid in the name of Housing the Homeless.
Tony, is right most Flats are not suitable for Animal Pets also I contend that HMO room letting’s created by forced-in licensing Schemes should be exempt.
The Removal of Section 21 put forward by Theresa May another lame duck temporary Prime Minister or are they all un-elected temporary Prime Ministers, now pushing back private Sector housing by 35 years to Assured Tenancies / Sitting Tenants when our Prime Minister was only 7 / 8 years old so what would he know about sitting Tenants and the reason Section 21 was required.
We are the only Business in the land where the owners have no control over it and all decisions taken by outsiders, quango’s with no in-put.
A landlord told me that because of the pending rental reform bill he gave notice over a year to approximately 25 tenants, he then refurbished his properties and put the rent up on average by 30%, all properties are now let again.
And your point is???
Sounds like a sensible move to maximise rental income whilst at the same time making his properties really nice should he need to sell quickly due to govt action (Govt recently cut capital gains allowance by half for example)
Also unbeknown to you he might be getting the properties up to “Decent Homes Standard” and up to EPC C in advance.
The LL did nothing illegal as far as I can tell from the limited info supplied and furthermore the new legislation will not prevent this in the future… It seems LL will not be able to re-let for 3 months following an eviction well it will take roughly that amount of time to refurbish, take new photos and advertise as Refurbished property “Coming soon”
It also doesn’t make any sense to refurbish all the properties in a single tax year, far more tax efficient to spread the refurbishments over several years.
I also note you don’t reference the landlord by name… Mr H Potter maybe or Mr & Mrs M Mouse?
I dont think Tony was having a go, merely stating what he was told – he certainly didnt say he objected to the idea.
A total joke if the government can mess it up they will i sold up two years ago after having a number of properties
i suspect the goverment has thought how can we make some money from the sector i would like to know how the ombudsman service is going to work !! if its anything like the FOS its not fit for purpose
I suspect all Landlords will have to pay to be a member or join the scheme and it will be based on number of properties !!!
Total joke !!!!
i have just read the water companies are now going to clear up the shit !!! at a small cost of 10 billion and guess what they are going to charge the consumer extra on the bill
The UK is a mess have you seen how many potholes the rds have its like a war zone !!!
I am more than happy with a landlord registration scheme, it makes sense, why on earth is there not also a tenant registration scheme?
It would make letting so much easier for everyone if the smashers, the don’t payers, the I know my rightsers were able to be screened at tenancy inception.
Already sold three of my properties since this started.
I endeavour to be a good Landlord and over 11 years have never used Section 21 to evict a good Tenant.
However I have used it to get rid of troublesome Tenants who pay rent irregularly, cause disruption to neighbours and skirt on the edge of rules to avoid Section 8 and then leave owing more than 2 months rent.
All the protection is for Tenants, nothing for good Landlords against scumbag Tenants.
If there is going to be a Landlord Registration Scheme, then it is only fair to have a tenant registration scheme to enable Landlords to identify good tenants before letting.
Fortunately after 11 years I do have excellent tenants in my remaining half dozen properties, but it has taken me years to get good tenants . The Worse damage I have suffered was when I listened to a hard luck story from a mother of four children from 15 to 8 when let. She was Assistant Manager in a care home and said because she had become a Lesbian, people would not rent to her. I gave her the benefit of the doubt, rent became irregular within 3 months, I got complaints of noise from neighbours. Complaints from eldest 2 sons 16 & 15 selling drugs and terrorising neighbours. Fines from Council from her abandoning rubbish in front garden ( Landlords fault??) and when I started motions to evict her, £23,000 of damage was caused to the property by druggie teenage sons before I got her out.
How will the new rules help with tenants like this? Neighbours too terrified to make statements, one had his car wrecked by druggie sons who used hammer and screwdriver to destroy it and no evidence for me to provide to court. Had to use Section 21.
There indeed should be a National Tenant Register as well as a National LL register.
That way both parties can check eachother out to assess they are suitable for eachother
However Govt would never permit a National Tenant Register as it knows there are millions of scumbag tenants.
These currently cost LL over £9 billion per year in defaulted rent etc.
There is no way Govt would wish to make it easier for LL to detect these feckless tenants.
Govt relies on feckless tenants being able to get one over on LL so they can be housed
Any Tenant who defaults on rent is necessarily feckless.
There are insurances that tenants could take out to cover for income loss.
They CHOOSE not to do so principally because they know the very generous welfare system will provide for the feckless.
The last thing Govt wants is the ability for LL to detect feckless tenants as it would be Councils that would have to pay to house the feckless tenants
LL wouldn’t house them as they would know the History of them.
So unfortunately the game will continue where feckless tenants deceive LL to obtain accommodation.
Govt knows that once the LL has detected that a tenant is feckless usually as a result of rent defaulting that it will take at least a year before the feckless Tenant is evicted.
That was with S21!!
It will take even longer with S8.
Govt needs to ensure that feckless tenants aren’t detected to avoid the horrendous costs of TA etc.
Govt also hasn’t realised that a National LL Register will substantially reduce the numbers of rental property
.
This is because LL will presumably have to confirm they have CTL from lenders; freeholders, leaseholders and have the correct insurance for the type of tenant occupants.
That would mean the criminal LL wouldn’t be able to let.
There are millions of fraudulently let properties
which would be detected by a LL register as criminal LL couldn’t register their fraudulent properties!!
Absolutely essential to have a tenant register!
Been screwed too many times over the years, flats left in horrendous condition, rent not paid or partially paid for months and months- one tenant walked out with the secondary glazing to windows! And maggots in the kitchen, with a baby …….
Thank goodness I managed to sell everything just before Covid hit….so happy I’m out!