Progress of the Bill
The Renters Reform Bill was announced with much fanfare when it was placed before Parliament for its first reading in May, but then seemed to stall.
One of the flagship elements of the Bill is the abolition of assured shorthold tenancies (“AST”), replacing them with periodic tenancies. This means that, in the absence of bad conduct by tenants, landlords cannot terminate leases at the end of a fixed term. This was widely welcomed by tenants, but greeted with some concern by many landlords, who feared this would make it more difficult to remove problematic tenants.
The original white paper proposing the changes ruled out introducing a new housing court, but proposed court reforms aiming to streamline the process by freeing up bailiffs’ time and digitising court processes, to assuage landlords’ concerns.
The Bill finally had its second reading yesterday, and went through without a hitch; however, it has been widely reported that the Bill’s smooth progress was due to assurances given by Michael Gove - the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – that the promised end to no fault, or section 21 evictions, would not take effect until improvements have been made to the Court system to make it faster and more efficient.
What does this mean for no fault evictions?
Extensive court delays have been widely reported across the board, and are not unique to property cases. Recent research from Thompson Reuters – using court data from the post pandemic period – highlighted an increase in court delays with civil claims now taking an average of 18 months to be heard, up 6 weeks from the same period last year
The HMCTS Reform Programme has already accepted the need for change, and launched a “digital services” evaluation, but this will take time to implement. Absent any further government announcements about proposed changes or increased funding, there is no quick fix to reduce these delays.
As the shift from ASTs to periodic tenancies, and the resulting end to no fault evictions, was the key feature of the bill, and represented a fundamental shift in the private rented sector, the confusion this announcement causes could discourage investment in the sector, just as demand is soaring.
