Residential lettings law bill

Residential lettings law bill currently under consideration in Parliament

The Deregulation Bill

Some of the changes currently being considered for law under, residential lettings law bill currently under consideration in Parliament, includes in:

Deposits:

Deposits on tenancies that started before April 2007 that have now become periodic will need to be protected in a deposit scheme within 90 days of the new law.

Section 21 and Retaliatory Evictions:

Landlord’s who fail legal requirements, such as obtaining an HMO license, cannot evict their tenant. The bill states:
”The Government accepts the principle that tenants should not be evicted because their landlord is unlicensed. However, the Government does not consider that it is appropriate that a person engaged in a criminal activity (that is, operating a property without a licence) should benefit from that activity by lawfully receiving or demanding rent. The Government accepts the need to refine the provision, especially to ensure that tenants are safeguarded against eviction for non-payment of rent, where the only reason for such failure is on account of the provision. This is a matter to which the Government is giving further consideration.”

The bill or proposed law is to protect tenants against retaliatory evictions and to amend the law on notices requiring possession relating to assured shorthold tenancies. Landlords who fail to arrange maintenance and are reported to the Local Authority, will have to wait 6 months from the date the Local Authority Notice was issued before attempting to evict the tenant on a Section 21 Notice.

The Bill reads:

A section 21 notice may not be given in relation to an assured shorthold
tenancy of a dwelling-house in England within six months beginning with the
day of service of a relevant notice (from the local housing authority) in relation to the dwelling-house.

(2) A section 21 notice given in relation to an assured shorthold tenancy of a
dwelling-house in England is invalid if—

(a) before the section 21 notice was given, the tenant made a relevant
complaint in relation to the dwelling-house to the landlord or the
relevant local housing authority, and

(b) since the section 21 notice was given, the relevant local housing
authority has served a relevant notice in relation to the dwelling-house.

Find the outcome of this residential lettings bill here.

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