Renters Reform Bill worse than feared

Renters Reform Bill worse than feared

10:26 AM, 18th May 2023, About 10 months ago 65

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It is only a Bill and has just been published but the Renters’ Reform Bill appears at first sight worse than many have feared. All tenancies are to become periodic, meaning landlords will have no security of income and student landlords in particular will find the tenants will not pay for the summer holidays.

One massive change is that currently section 21 notices cannot be served if the tenancy deposit has not been properly protected with an authorised scheme and the prescribed information given unless and until the deposit is returned to the tenant. That rule did not apply to Section 8 notices. Now it is proposed that except in cases of antisocial behaviour: “ the court may make an order for possession … only if the tenancy deposit is being held in accordance with an authorised scheme.”

The tenant must also have been given the Prescribed Information in the required form. So even if the ground for eviction is rent arrears, damage to the property or that the landlord wants the property back to live in himself, he may fail if the deposit paperwork is not in order.

When landlords eventually get to court tenants will be able to ambush them with a technical defence because, for example, the wrong clause number was referred to in the Prescribed Information or there was some other minor error. The safest course will be to return the deposit to the tenant which is really to add insult to injury and it will be a bold landlord who seeks a section 8 eviction without professional help. So much for Mr Gove’s statement today about being able to evict more quickly tenants who are “persistently and deliberately evading their responsibility to pay their rent”.


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Comments

Beaver

12:17 PM, 23rd May 2023, About 10 months ago

I've read some of the material on the new bill. If I understand it correctly, some of the functions of section 21 have been moved to section 8. And if I understand the situation correctly it is proposed that if a tenant is more than two months late with rent on three occasions then you can just evict.

Does this proposal mean that if the tenant is always one month in arrears (i.e. not more than two months late with payment but always in arrears) that you can never evict? Surely that would mean that if you have a 5 week deposit, but the tenant is always one month late with payment this means that in effect you have a 1 week deposit and you can't evict?

If that's right and I've not misunderstood the proposal this basically takes your deposit off you. You have no deposit and the tenant has no incentive to look after the property.

ListedBuilding. org

11:47 AM, 25th May 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 18/05/2023 - 11:22
Courts also have the discretion to ignore minor errors such as typographical errors in the clause numbers.
The answer is to make sure that your document is properly drafted using phrases rather than section numbers

ListedBuilding. org

11:49 AM, 25th May 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 23/05/2023 - 12:17
Does the bill remove the ability to get a guarantor...if not, a guarantor will become standard practice, just as it already is in the student accommodation field

Julesgflawyer

13:35 PM, 25th May 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 23/05/2023 - 12:17
There's a new mandatory ground of possession. As you say, in arrears of more than two months' worth of rent on three or more occasions in a period of two/three years (I'd need to check). It's to help with the Ground 8 evasion tactic of bringing the arrears below two months' worth just before the possession hearing. Nobody makes you take tent from the deposit.

Ian Narbeth

13:39 PM, 25th May 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by ListedBuilding. org at 25/05/2023 - 11:47
Yes judges do but often they don't and the consequences for a landlord are immense.

Bear in mind that it was not necessary to add this requirement to section 8 applications. Why are they being made harder when the Government says it is making it easier for landlords to evict defaulting tenants?

Beaver

14:02 PM, 25th May 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Julesgflawyer at 25/05/2023 - 13:35So if the tenant is always 7 weeks late but never 8 weeks late, or perhaps >8 weeks on only two occasions for say 6-12 months does that mean that you can't get rid of them? I've had tenants like this that I've had to chase every single month for payment and they are a pain in the a**e.
I used to be able to get rid of them.

Julesgflawyer

17:36 PM, 25th May 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 25/05/2023 - 14:02
There will still be Grounds 10 and 11, but they are both discretionary.

JB

8:49 AM, 26th May 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 25/05/2023 - 14:02Can anyone tell me what 'an occasion' is? Would January, February and March be 3 occasions?

Reluctant Landlord

9:13 AM, 26th May 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by JB at 26/05/2023 - 08:49
theoretically if rent due monthly then yes I take that to mean it could be concurrently so three months in a row. BUT as there is no clarity, occasions could mean weekly (if your put in your contract that said rent arrears would be chased on a weekly occasion basis?? )

I feel that the 'within 2/3 years' is unneccesary. Once is enough, twice is purposeful, three times is just taking the p***.

If I had to use this ground I would stick to what I would see as min required to tick this ground.

Within 2 calendar years of date of the tenancy start, min two months of rent missing on three sep occasions. Eg rent two months behind on 1 Jan.
7th Jan would be first occasion missed, second week Jan the second and third week the third.

There are your three occasions where rent min 2 months in arrears missed.

It states IN a period of 2/3 years. Does it have to be within exactly that? The arrears HAS to spread into year 2 minimum to comply with the ground? What if its within a calendar year(as example above)?

Seething Landlord

9:47 AM, 26th May 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by JB at 26/05/2023 - 08:49Best to read what the Bill actually says:
“Ground 8A
Within a three year period ending with the date of service of the notice under section 8—
(a) if rent is payable monthly, at least two months’ rent was unpaid for at least a day on at least three separate occasions,
or
(b) if rent is payable for a period shorter than a month, at least eight weeks’ rent was unpaid for at least a day on at least three separate occasions.
For the purposes of this ground, occasions are “separate” if in between those occasions the amount of the unpaid rent reduced to less than the amount mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) or sub-paragraph (b) (whichever is applicable) for at least one day.

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