What does a Labour Government mean for landlords and tenants?
There has been a lot of whispers, thoughts, opinions, and advice (some of it over a pint down the local) over the past few months surrounding the Tenant Reform Act and now that Labour are in power there are a few changes they propose to bring in.
Whether you are a tenant or a landlord here’s some of the things you need to know – not all of this is certain, but we do seem to be seeing a direction of travel, rather than listen to rumours we would like to share what we know and how we see what the affect may be?
The headline is that the proposed changes will only affect around 4% of tenancies, there are many reasons why a tenancy ends but well over 80% of tenancies are ended by the tenant because they decide to move.
Landlords are still able to move back into their own properties (though we predict that the notice period may be longer) Landlords can still issue a possession notice (through a Section 8 rather than Section 21) for tenancy breaches like rent arrears or anti-social behaviour, of course landlords don’t want good tenants to leave properties, and this won’t change.
If you are a tenant, as said above, landlords like good tenants, paying fair rent and won’t ask them to leave unless they need to sell or reoccupy.
Tenants will be able to request pets in their property which the landlord must not reasonably refuse. If it’s a leasehold property that prohibits then it will still be a no, likewise if the pet in question doesn’t suit the property then the landlord can still refuse. A llama in a fourth floor flat could be interesting!
A new law will also be passed to make it illegal for landlords to say ‘no children’ – technically this is already illegal, but it will be strengthened with the new bill.
Rent increases can happen every 12 months. It needs to be realistically in line with market rates. We as an agent make sure we supply our evidence to justify the rent increases so both parties are happy. In the past 4 years (since Covid) we have found that rents weren’t increased with many becoming well below the market rate. This has caused quite a few to have a larger than normal increase.
Landlords and their agents are not permitted to enter bidding wars. The advertised rent is the rent that should be offered. We have always worked this way.
Labour want to improve standards for all privately rented properties by introducing a couple of laws that already exist in the social housing market. The Decent Home Standard and Awaabs Law. The second named after a two year old who tragically passed away due to the damp conditions he was living in. They will become stricter, and landlords will be forced to rectify in a shorter time frame.
A digital database will exist to assist tenants with their rented property and another for landlords to help them navigate their obligations and to demonstrate that are complying with their obligations.
A new landlords ombudsman will give tenants a right to redress their landlord without the cost of going through courts. There was talk, pre-election, about tenants having the rights to buy their rental properties at a discounted rate. This hasn’t been mentioned since and was not discussed as part of the opening of parliament.
Mandatory periodic tenancies also seem to have disappeared for the time being so we will wait and see if it comes back. In short there will be some change but tenants and landlords have nothing to fear.
If you are worried about any of this though, please pick up the phone and speak to our teams.