Land Law and Renters’ Rights - Legislation Update May 2025
Renters’ Rights Bill
The Bill is currently in the report stage, during which amendments arising out of the recently concluded Committee stage will be considered.
The Bill seeks to change the law on rented homes by:
- Abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions.
- Providing tenants with greater capacity to appeal excessive above-market rents.
- Preventing landlords and agents from discriminating against prospective tenants with children or in receipt of benefits.
- Giving tenants the right to request a pet, which landlords cannot unreasonably refuse.
- Implementing Awaab’s Law to set clearer timeframes in which landlords must take action to make homes safe when they contain serious hazards.
- Implementing a ‘Private Rented Sector Database’, The Property Ombudsman and the Property Redress Scheme.
Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024
The Act received Royal Assent on 24th May 2024, but only a few changes have come into force so far.
The Act so far:
- Prohibits the grant or assignment of certain new long residential leases of houses.
- Amends the rights of tenants under long residential leases to acquire the freeholds of their houses.
- Amends the Building Safety Act 2022 to extend the First-Tier Tribunal’s power when making a remediation order, awarding the power to require the landlord to remedy the defect and/or take specified ‘relevant steps’ to remedy the defect.
- As to tenants’ right to manage, changes the non-residential limit within a block to 50%.
- Prevents landlords from recovering any non-litigation costs of a right to manage claim.
- Section 100(1) gives the Secretary of State power to make regulations to providing that a person carrying out estate management (as a relevant landlord of the dwelling or as an estate manager) must join a redress scheme.
- Amends the Rentcharges Act 1977 to remove the draconian remedies that old rentcharges had. The Bill does not affect estate service charge remedies, which remain controversial.
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