Bill banning no-fault evictions to return to Parliament
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The government is set to introduce a bill in the Commons next week which will ban landlords from evicting tenants without a reason.
Ministers are expected to bring the Renters’ Rights Bill for its first reading.
The draft law, which will apply in England, will also give tenants the right to request a pet.
A ban on no-fault evictions has long been promised but repeatedly delayed, with the previous Conservative government running out of time. The bill will be debated later in autumn.
At the heart of the bill – which is aimed at giving renters greater protections and cracking down on a unscrupulous landlords – is a ban on Section 21 evictions.
They are used by landlords to evict tenants with two months’ notice and without any reason needing to be given.
It is understood that ministers would seek to enact the ban immediately after the bill became law – rather than waiting to check whether the court system will be ready to deal with new cases , as the previous government proposed.
The last government warned that getting rid of no-fault evictions will increase pressure on the courts, as landlords will need to go through a legal process to regain possession of their properties when they have legitimate grounds to do so.
The bill would also seek to give renters greater rights to challenge rent increases and introduce new laws to end the practice of rental bidding wars by landlords and letting agents.
It would also expand Awaab’s law – named after the toddler who died after exposure to mould in his family’s social rented home – to the private sector, requiring landlords to fix hazards within a certain timeframe.
New clear and expanded possession would also be given to landlords to reclaim their properties when they need to.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously said too many people were living with the threat of “insecurity and injustice”.
Under the Conservative government, the bill had reached its second reading in the House of Lords when the general election was called and Parliament was dissolved.
Housing charity Shelter has described the new proposed Renters’ Rights Bill as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to fix the private rental system for England’s 11 million renters, which it says has to face record levels of evictions, rising rents and low housing standards.
As well as calling for Section 21 to be free from loopholes, Shelter also wants the bill to limit rent increases in tenancies, fund local authorities to be able to crack down on bad landlords and an end to discrimination in renting.
The Renters’ Reform Coalition previously said the government was “saying the right things” but it would reserve judgement for the detail in the legislation.
It also said a cap on in-tenancy rent increases was needed to avoid unaffordable rent rises becoming another form of no-fault evictions.
