How to get ready for the Renters' Rights Bill
05 Mar 2025Landlords and agencies must prepare for the changes the Renters’ Rights Bill will bring, and getting it right will determine whether they can stay in business and remain profitable or not.
This bespoke standard assesses the progress of the implementation of the Bill, showing that Rent Happily has already completed 70% of its requirements in its processes and operations, its financial strategy and its personnel.
Methodology
In this article, the Bill is synthesised into seven topics, presenting the main legal changes, the impact of these on the sector, and what Rent Happily is doing about it. As some aspects of the Bill do not affect Rent Happily directly, like students lets for instance, they have been omitted in this article.
The diagrams show the progress of the implementation on three fronts:
Operations
Adapt procedures and update documents.
Personnel
Training staff and changes to personnel.
Finances
Income adjustment and update fee structure.
When Red, the implementation is pending or in progress, and Green is ready to go.
The Legislative Upheaval
The Bill is expected to become law in the spring or summer of this year, and the information compiled here is based on its contents as it passes through its second reading in the House of Lords.
Below are the main changes, their impact, and our progress in the implementation of the Bill.
1. Assured Tenancies
The Changes
- All tenancies will become assured tenancies - or periodic- by default.
- Tenants will be able to notify a change in tenancy from day one by giving a notice of two months instead of one.
The Impact
Agencies won't be able to charge renewal fees, with a severe impact on their revenue when applicable.
Tenants who couldn’t move out during the fixed term of their tenancy will have more freedom to do so, which will mostly affect poorly maintained properties or tenants unhappy with their landlord or agency. Affected landlords will pay more changeover fees and new tenancy fees more often.
Our Progress
Rent Happily doesn't charge renewal fees and our business model already works without these. We expect no financial impact on this front.
We already boast of an exceptionally high level of tenant retention, suggesting that there will be little impact on tenancy changeovers. This means only minor modifications to our contract clauses, no changes in personnel, and a marginal impact on the changeover fees charged to landlords.
Operations
Pending
Personnel
Ready
Finances
Pending
2. Possession
The Changes
- Abolition of Section 21: landlords will no longer be able to evict tenants at will.
- Section 8 will be expanded and the grounds for possession reinforced, maintaining the ability to evict tenants in case of need.
The Impact
Section 21 has been used extensively by landlords to avoid going to court when possible. Its abolition means that courts will always have to be involved via Section 8, putting extra pressure on an already stressed judicial system, and potentially causing more delays with possessions.
Our Progress
At Rent Happily, we have served Section 21 only when necessary and always backed up with grounds for eviction in case of need, so the impact of this will be minimal.
Our operations will be updated once the definite rules are published, and our staff will attend relevant training for dealing most efficiently with possession. No financial impact is expected on our books.
Operations
Pending
Personnel
Pending
Finances
Ready
3. Rent Controls
Rent controls are any policy that applies legal regulations to influence private rents (as defined in the Bristol Rent Living Commission Report 2023, Section 5.16). Since the new regulation will not allow the First Tier Tribunal to set rents at a higher level than market rent, the measure will stifle increases.
The Changes
- Automatic clauses of rent increase will be prohibited and must be notified using the official Section 13 procedure, with two months’ notice instead of one.
- Tenants will be able to challenge the increase to the courts, who may grant the increase if kept within market boundaries, although never higher than the proposed increase as is the case today.
- Rent in advance will be banned at the onset of the tenancy.
The Impact
Landlords and agencies who were relying on clauses of automatic increases will face an increased admin burden.
Challenges by tenants will probably force rents up more steeply due to the dual impact of landlords selling off (reducing capacity and putting pressure on rents) and new properties coming onto the market at even higher rents due to increased property prices and mortgage requirements. However, rent increases will be severely delayed by courts when challenged by tenants, if they increase at all.
The bar on rent in advance will affect primarily the students’ market, with some marginal impact on payment of rent at the onset of the tenancy.
Our Progress
Rent Happily has only charged rent in advance and used automatic rent increases under exceptional circumstances, and we already use Section 13 in most cases.
We will update our procedures to accommodate the changes, although we expect little to no impact on our existing or future tenancies, personnel, or our bottom line.
Operations
Pending
Personnel
Ready
Finances
Ready
4. Redress Scheme
The Changes
- Landlords must join a redress scheme. and register with a new ombudsman service that will facilitate the mediation of disputes within the sector.
- A national digital database will provide information to tenants about the property they want to rent.
The Impact
Landlords will need to pay to register with these schemes unless they use an agent (this exception will apply only if this amendment is approved by the Lords).
Our Progress
As an agency, we are already registered with a redress scheme. No impact is expected elsewhere.
Operations
Ready
Personnel
Ready
Finances
Ready
5. Awaab's Law
The Changes
- The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 will extend to the Private Rented Sector, making damp and mould a hazard that landlords must investigate and remedy within a specific timescale.
The Impact
Most rented properties are already fit for purpose, so the Bill will mostly affect landlords who were not proactive in the repair and maintenance obligations of their properties. These will be more likely to face increased fines for non-compliance.
Our Progress
We routinely inspect properties, and we keep damp and mould at bay in the properties we manage with a dual approach of tenant-induced measures and landlord-backed remedies.
Our procedures are up-to-date to comply with the implementation of the bill already, and no further impact is expected.
Operations
Ready
Personnel
Ready
Finances
Ready
6. Decent Homes
The Changes
Although the final text is not available yet, it is expected to require properties to:
- Comply with the Health and Safety requirements embedded in The HHSRS Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) Regulations 2005.
- Be in reasonable state of repair, offer adequate thermal comfort, and provide adequate facilities for its intended use.
The Impact
Agencies and landlords will need to update their processes and train their personnel accordingly to assess their properties and comply with the legislation. Sub-standard properties will face increased costs.
Our Progress
Rent Happily carries out a Residential Property Risk Assessment on a 5-year basis by default, which is compliant with the HHSRS, although our procedures for inspections will need updating. No impact on personnel or finances is expected.
Operations
Pending
Personnel
Ready
Finances
Ready
7. Tenant Rights
The Changes
- Pets: landlords will not be able to refuse unreasonably the demand of tenants requesting to have pets.
- End of bidding wars: this will stop an over-inflationary pressure on rent fuelled by the excess demand in the market, bringing back some sensibility in pricing strategies.
- Non-discrimination: people on benefits or with children will have the same right to apply to rent any advertised property. Most agencies already apply this
The Impact
Agents and landlords will need adequate training to comply with the new requirements and update their procedures.
Our Progress
We are good to go. At Rent Happily, we have applied a non-discrimination approach for years. Also, we have favoured tenancies with pets for years and used pet insurance policies to protect the interests of the landlord since 2020, as explained in our first article on this here.
Rent Happily never used overbidding (see our article), and we have only accepted rents in advance under exceptional circumstances. No further impact is expected.
Operations
Ready
Personnel
Ready
Finances
Ready
Summary
Here is the overall progress for Rent Happily on the seven fronts:
Operations
Personnel
Finances
Our Score: 71% completed.
We will keep our fees mostly unchanged for landlords. We expect no income loss over all 7 fronts above. Rent Happily will lose no employees.
We provide this methodology for everyone to use. Feel free to adapt it to your needs so that you can track the progress of the implementation of the Bill in your portfolio too!
The cost of non-compliance
Penalties and fines are increasing for landlords and agents breaching their obligations. Tenants will have greater scope for claiming rents back and Councils will have greater powers to impose civil penalties. In addition, the landlord database could pose a threat to the reputation of non-compliant landlords, potentially causing serious financial losses to those in breach.
We wholeheartedly recommend landlords to work with agencies to assist them in the renting process. Likewise, agencies must update their procedures diligently, train their personnel and adapt their financial structure to minimize the impact of the Bill on their operations.
We offer Strategic Consultancy to agents and landlords wanting to obtain the best possible results in the implementation of the upcoming changes.
Boris Drappier
