What's happening with the Renters Reform Bill?
We continue to keep an eye on the Renters Reform Bill - the bill had its second reading on 23 October 2023. It is now at the committee stage with no date announced. The Bill is now unlikely to receive Royal Assent until the spring of 2024. If a general election is called before that happens, it will halt the process further. When the bill does receive Royal Assent it will come into force in stages, with the earliest to be 6 months later.
As it stands, the bill has been carried over to the next session of Parliament, with King Charles III stating in his first King’s Speech on 7 November 2023, “Renters will benefit from stronger security of tenure and better value, while landlords will benefit from reforms to provide certainty that they can regain their properties when needed”, and the “Renters Bill will ensure a fairer deal for renters and landlords, by outlawing no fault evictions and enabling landlords to evict antisocial tenants faster.”
It should be noted that the government has indicated that even when it does receive Royal Assent there will still be a delay enacting the Bill’s flagship measure of scrapping Section 21 eviction powers. Michael Gove, Housing Secretary told MPs earlier this month that the scrapping of s21 evictions will first require the court possession process to be modernised and speeded up.
Posted on 11/08/2023 by Ortolan
