Renters Rights Bill 2025: Implications for Landlords

Fri 16 May 2025

Mary Midgley, Lettings & Compliance Manager

There has been lots of discussion about the Renters Rights Bill that we are expecting to become law later this year. Royal Assent is expected ‘some time over the summer’ whatever that means, and there are still some parts of the bill being amended. Whilst the bill will become law this year, parts of the legislation will not come into effect until 2026/2027. This is because secondary legislation will need to be written to implement parts of the Act.

 

What we know – We know that Section 21(S.21) no will be abolished from the date of Royal Assent. Any S.21 notices that have already been served will be honoured but with strict deadlines, so it will be very important to be keeping an eye on timelines if you have a notice outstanding.

Its not all doom and gloom on the eviction front, as while it does mean that the easy option of S21 is no longer there, Section 8 has been extended to include more mandatory grounds which will go a long way to alleviating the issue. It also means that vetting at the start of the tenancy will become even more important and vigorous.

All tenancies going forward will be periodic and tenant can give notice at anytime although this will now be 2 months from the date of the following rental payment date, and not one month as is currently the norm.

Rent increased will have to be done via Section 13 on a prescribed form (form 4) and will only be able to be served once a year. All tenants will have the right – free of charge – to take the rent to tribunal and the new rent will not come into effect until after the hearing. The year will run from either the date of the new increase or the date of the hearing, therefore if you have tenants who have been in residence without an increase recently, you might wish to consider increasing the rent before this section comes into force.

All tenants will have the right to request a pet and the landlord must have a valid reason not to allow one. However, a landlord will be able to request an extra payment to cover damage caused by the pet.

All landlords will need to join a redress scheme which we will be happy to assist you with once the details of the schemes (we are expecting more than one) are known. We will also be able to assist you with signing up to the new government database that is going to be launched although we don’t expect this to be in the first implementation phase. If you let your properties through us we will be on hand to help you through this process.

If you have read the piece in this newsletter about EPC’s you will know that there is a general push to make homes of a better standard. It will be expected that kitchens and bathrooms will be of a modern standard and some standards currently only applying to social housing will be applied to the private rented sector.