Agenda item

Committee to receive a presentation.

The Cabinet Member for Housing introduced the item which concerned the new Renters Rights Act 2025.  An overview of the Act would be given by the Environmental Health Manager, Environment and Private Sector Housing.  Those leading on this were Ayeisha Kirkham, Head of Public Protection and Tom Amblin-Lightowler, Environmental Health Manager, Environmental Protection and Private Sector Housing.  The Renters Rights Act 2025 would bring about a substantial change to the Private Sector Housing and place a significant burden on the Council in its capacity as the local housing authority.  It was implementing changes to tenancies and the way the sector operated.

The Environmental Health Manager, Environmental Protection and Private Sector Housing then went through the presentation with the Committee.

The Government had set out a Roadmap on how the Act was to be implemented as it was a vast piece of legislation. 

-        27 December 2025 – New investigatory powers for Local Authorities e.g. asking for additional information from individuals operating in letting activity, also access to financial records, allowing entrance to businesses.  Under the existing regime Local Authorities had no power to enter businesses.  The new powers allowed access to businesses to seize documentation of ask for additional information.  This related to offences under the Renters Rights Act and existing offences under the Housing Act 2004.  It also extended Section 235 of the Housing Act 2004 which was for requests for documentation and powers of entry under Section 239.  These were being looked at to see how they could be integrated in to existing activities.

-        The bulk of the changes for Phase 1 would come into effect on 1 May 2026, this included tenancy changes. 

-        Late 2026 would be when the Private Rented Sector Database and Landlord Ombudsman came into effect although no dates had been given.

-        Phase 3 around Decent Home Standard was due to come in 2035 together with Awaabs Law which already affected social landlords and the Council as a social landlord provider.  This would have a significant impact on a very large scale and currently there was little detail on how this would be carried out.

Overall milestones that the Government had set were shown on the slide and could be accessed through the Government website: www.gov.uk .

Phase 1 included:

-        Abolishment of  Section 21s “no fault” evictions

-        Introduction of Assured Periodic Tenancies

-        Reform in respect of Possession grounds

-        Limit rent increases

-        Ban rental bidding and rent in advance

-        Make it illegal to discriminate against renters

-        Require landlords to consider pets

-        Strengthen enforcement actions and rent repayment orders

It was an extensive overhaul and most would be the responsibility of the local authority to enforce which would increase the burden on the statutory function substantially.   The key point was the abolishment of “no fault” evictions, Section 21 Notices to end a tenancy would be banned from 1 May 2026.  It was noted that any in progress up to 1 May 2026 would be allowed to proceed to the courts as long as the period did not exceed six months, if this was exceeded the notices would become invalid and could not be enforced.

Also short, assured tenancies (6 – 12 months) would no longer be allowed with tenancies becoming open ended.  Existing tenancies would have to be notified of the changes to their tenancy from the 1 May 2026 and this documentation was being produced by the Government to be provided by the landlord to the tenant.  Any tenancy signed after the 1 May 2026 would need to be written tenancies, currently in England no written statement of particulars was required, however this would berequired from 1 May 2026 and conditions specified, information was awaited from the Government in respect of what was required to be included to comply with the Renters Rights Act 2025. 

Existing possession grounds were being looked at with and existing grounds were being strengthened with work ongoing.  Rent increases would be limited to once per year and would not occur in the first 12 month period.  Two months’ notice must be provided by the landlord and a template provided. Disputes in respect of rent would go to the residential property tribunal.  Bans had been put in place in respect of rental bidding and paying rents in advance.

There was now no discrimination against renters and pets were to be considered by landlords where reasonable to do so.  It was stated that relevant guidance in respect of this was due to be released in the coming weeks. Also the new Act strengthened enforcement and repayment orders with new legislation in place to ensure compliance.

Phase 2

This was expected late in 2026 although no date had been confirmed.  Phase 2 had  been broken down into two key components, the landlord and rental property database. Every landlord would need to be registered on the national portal, currently pilots were being undertaken in certain areas one of which was Plymouth. It was not known what this would look like as no details were available.  Once this had been completed stage two would be rolled out for further public access. The database would include landlord details, property details and compliance documentation (gas, electrical and EPC certification).  It was the local housing authority’s duty to ensure that landlords accurately register their property.  The Council was not the owners of the database but were the responsible authority for it being rolled out and ensure that landlords are registering on the database.

The second part of Phase 2 was the establishment of an ombudsman body to deal with disputes in the private rented sector.  The Government would identify a scheme administrator and the Secretary of State would select which administrator will carry out the scheme. Once this was announced there would be a 12-18 month period to gear up for the administration, resources and staff etc.  Stage 2 would be the rollout  to landlords to be registered and was expected during 2028.  It would be the local authority responsibility to ensure that landlords were members of the schemes.

Work was being done to get ready for the implementation.  An Officers working group has been established for the service areas that are impacted by the Renters Rights Act to work together towards effective implementation.  One key area included the Head of Service, Housing’s area in terms on homeless applications for illegal evictions.  Other areas were the Private Sector Housing Team who were leading on the Renters Rights Act and the statutory enforcement function.  The Private Sector Housing Team would be recruiting new posts, pending budget approval to help resource what would be a substantial amount of work that would be required.

Questions were asked in respect of the new burdens being placed on the local housing authority and whether the Government had provided funding to alleviate this burden to which both the Environmental Health Manager, Environment and Private Sector Housing and also the Director of Housing and Projects responded.

The Chairman stated it was the most significant piece of legislation that affected the housing rental sector in years and he asked that the Committee be kept updated when more information from Government became available.

Members noted the update.