A New Deal for Renting: Resetting the balance of rights and responsibilities between landlords and tenants: Citizens Advice response to MHCLG’s call for evidence
Citizens Advice welcomes the opportunity to respond to the government’s consultation ‘A New Deal for Renting: Resetting the balance of rights and responsibilities between landlords and tenants’ and provide feedback.
We welcome the government’s intent to increase security for 4.5 million privately renting households by abolishing section 21 grounds for possession. Done well, this legislation will be a sea change for renters.
However, we have several concerns arising from this consultation’s proposals on how assured tenancies will be managed and enforced. Our primary concerns are:
The option to retain fixed-term tenancies and break clauses undermines the government’s intention to create indefinite tenancies and increase security for renters. Retaining fixed-term tenancies could lead to increased harm for tenants due to unexpected changes in circumstances - for example, a relationship breakdown. Break clauses could also be used as a backdoor to unfair and revenge evictions in lieu of section 21 notices. Government should remove the option for these to be retained.
Indefinite tenancies with amended (or stronger) Schedule 2 grounds would be a preferred way to strike the right balance between landlords and tenants' rights.
The proposed changes to Schedule 2 rent arrears grounds will have a disproportionate impact on tenants facing chronic debt or who receive Universal Credit. This is because tenants in chronic debt will struggle to reduce their debts and be at greater risk of eviction. Universal Credit recipients will also be affected by the 5-week wait before receiving their benefits, and be more likely to fall into more than a month of rent arrears as a result. Government should not proceed with these changes.
Government should make sure appropriate safeguards are in place and that any new grounds are watertight. This is to make sure that tenants are protected from illegal evictions, unscrupulous landlords do not exploit the new legislation, and to ensure that any new grounds are not a de facto section 21.
Tenants need adequate time to get representation and advice. Especially in the context of accelerated procedures, and for mandatory grounds if accelerated procedures are retained.
Government should make sure that other provisions linked to the validity of section 21 notices are extended to section 8 grounds. Section 21 notices are dependent on landlords fulfilling certain legal responsibilities - for example, securing deposits, providing an energy performance certificate and annual gas safety checks. These provisions have often acted as a defacto safeguard for tenants to enforce their rights and should be extended to section 8 grounds.
It’s crucial that legislation, such as the Tenant Fees Act 2019, is updated to make sure it applies to the new regime. As it stands, the Act applies to assured shorthold tenancies. If these are abolished - as the government proposes - tenants will lose these safeguards.
This legislation will only work if the new rules are properly enforced. We believe a national body should be established to set consistent standards across the sector beyond those set out in legislation, and make sure they’re proactively enforced.