Renters' Rights Bill Impact Assessment - What letting agents and landlords must prepare for

Private Renters' Ombudsman

All private landlords will now be required to join up to the new Ombudsman scheme, aimed at promoting swift resolutions for any disputes. As an independent body, issues from repairs to contract violations can be dealt with quickly and with a binding decision.

Lettings agents will now become even more of a bridge between landlords and tenants during such disputes, so it may be a good idea to invest in some additional training to remain up to speed on communication techniques and how best to approach mediating disputes and challenges that may be raised. It may even be worth hiring a member of the team who can be tasked with actioning and helping to resolve these issues in a timely manner to avoid further frustration.

Key Features and Requirements:

• Mandatory Membership: All private landlords will now be required to join the PRS Ombudsman scheme
• Independent Resolution: The Ombudsman will be able to adjudicate impartially when it comes to disputes and its resolutions will be binding
• Alternative to Court: Offers an alternative way to resolve issues for tenants which doesn’t involve court proceedings
• Scope of Issues: The Ombudsman will cover a variety of issues, including, contract violations, repair disputes, issues with deposits and many others.

What This Means for Landlords:

• Compliance Obligation: It will be a legal requirement to become a member of the Ombudsman and to maintain certification
• Financial Risk: Any non-compliance with binding decisions could mean additional penalty and further actions taken
• Reputation Management: The result of Ombudsman cases will be a part of a landlord's compliance record, which could, potentially affect future rental opportunities
• Cost Implications: There will be additional costs to consider, with membership fees and any potential compensation to pay out
• Proactive Approach: For landlords who prioritise communication from tenants and resolve issues swiftly, escalation can be avoided.

What This Means for Letting Agents:

• Training Investment: It’s a good idea for agencies to invest in additional training for their staff so that they are well-equipped to deal with mediation and disputes
• Specialised Resources: It’s worth considering hiring new team members who will solely deal with any resolution processes and Ombudsman communications
• Early Intervention: Agents should become adept at identifying and dealing with concerns from tenants before they become formal complaints
• Documentation Standards: Agents that maintain detailed records for all tenant interactions will find any resulting Ombudsman cases will be much easier and quicker to address
• Service Differentiation: Those agencies that start to excel at preventing any disputes  and who can resolve issues quickly will gain the competitive advantage with both tenants and landlords.

Private Rented Sector Database

Details of landlords and properties will be logged in a nationwide landlord register and our Vision+ platform is on hand to help with this. The PRS Database a prerequisite for using certain grounds for eviction, meaning there are strong compliance incentives.

Key Features and Requirements:

• Mandatory Registration: It will be a requirement that all private landlords register themselves as well as their properties on to the PRS Database. This will likely involve providing an identity verification, more thorough information on properties will be needed and will have to be kept accurate and updated.
• Strong Enforcement Mechanism: Registration for landlords is so important because it will give them access to using most grounds for eviction, in particular, landlords will be unable to evict tenants unless they are registered (with the exception of anti-social behaviour cases). It is therefore imperative that landlords ensure they have the registration in place.
• Compliance Incentive: This requirement for registration is a true incentive for landlords, as those who aren’t registered could be prevented from regaining possession of their property when they need it. In addition to this, landlords could also face fines of up to £7,000 for not being registered.

Benefits for Good Landlords:

The database is not merely for record-keeping, it will act as a means of showing professionalism and compliance for landlords and local councils will be able to use the database to target rogue operators much more efficiently. This two-tier system means that landlords will be able to benefit from demonstrable legitimacy.

Impact on Letting Agents:

The database will prove to become a critical checkpoint for letting agents, one where they can make sure all landlords are registered and aware of their compliance obligations. An additional service many letting agents may choose to offer could be a registration assistance service, whereby they help landlords to sign up and help to maintain their necessary database entries.

Higher Property Standards

All private rented properties will be subject to the Decent Homes Standard, with laws such as Awaab’s Law ensuring landlords take the necessary action to look at and fix any serious damp and mould issues in properties. All safety issues must be addressed in a timely manner, adhering to strict timeframes.

Key Features and Requirements:

• Decent Homes Standard Extension: The Decent Homes Standard is much more familiar to the Social Housing sector, however, the Renters Rights Bill intends to see this being introduced to the private sector and will require all rental homes to meet a minimum quality criteria
• Four Core Requirements: These are that properties must not have any serious HHSRS (Housing Health and Safety Rating System) hazards, be in a reasonable state of repair, have a good range of modern facilities, and have a reasonable degree of warmth throughout
• Legal Deadlines: In the event of any serious hazards, such as damp and mould, being reported, private landlords will be legally bound to look into these issues within a matter of days and to come up with a resolution within weeks
• Compliance Timeline: The exact Decent Homes Standard criteria for the Private Rental Sector is set to be defined within secondary legislation, aiming for a planned implementation in 2035 or 2037. This is to allow landlords sufficient time to make any necessary improvements.
• Current Non-Compliance: Figures show that there are currently, 21% of private rental properties in England that are considered to be "non-decent," meaning there will be a significant number of property upgrades that will need to be made ahead of implementation.

Benefits for Tenants:

• Improved Living Conditions: These changes will help ensure that tenants will be living in properties that are of a consistent quality
• Health Protection: With the strict deadlines in place for addressing issues of damp, mould, and other potential serious health hazards, tenants will be protected to a much higher standard
• Empowerment to Complain: Given that Section 21 will be abolished, tenants will feel free to report any issues that arise, without concerns of a retaliation eviction
• Legal Recourse: The clear, legal deadlines in place will mean tenants have specific timeframes to go by, allowing them to understand their options should a landlord fail to enact repairs and maintenance on time

Impact on Letting Agents:

• Proactive Property Management: Letting agents will need to ensure they are involved with all concerns about property maintenance. This is so that they can advise landlords on necessary improvements and compliance to successfully meet DHS
• Rapid Response Systems: It’ll be important for agencies to have systems that respond quickly to reports of damp, mould and any other safety and health hazards to meet the necessary legal timeframes
• Pre-Letting Assessments: These checks will need to be comprehensive before a property can be marketed, so that all issues can be raised
• Landlord Advisory Services: It’s a good idea for letting agents to expand the services they offer to include compliance audits and an understanding of improvement planning to equip landlords for the new standards
• Documentation Requirements: Communication will be key for these new standards, so it’s important that detailed reports of maintenance requests, their response times, and the necessary actions are all recorded accurately
• Cost Implications: It may be the case that letting agents will need to manage increased budgets for maintenance and to coordinate much more on any improvements to a property
• Competitive Advantage: The agencies that do best at managing compliance and dealing quickly when it comes to issue resolution will be the ones that attract quality landlords.

Since the announcement of the Renters' Rights Bill, there has been significant debate right across the property industry, with mixed reactions from various stakeholders.

Industry Bodies and Landlord Associations

The position of the NRLA (National Residential Landlords Association): This body has steadily grown more and more against the Bill, with calls for ministers to look at reforming the Renters’ Rights Bill to account for more realistic goals for landlords, ones that are deemed less punitive.

The main concern of the NRLA is for those effective landlords who may fear the Bill. Whilst ministers insist there’s nothing for them to fear, many feel there has been a lack of answers to some basic questions which has led to concerns, including:

• Court System Efficiency: The NRLA feels there will need to be a more efficient court system in place to deal with the inevitable increase in possession cases
• Tenant Debt Thresholds: There are genuine concerns about the arrears tenants will be able to accrue from two to three months before a landlord will have grounds to serve a repossession notice.
• Implementation Timeline: The NRLA has been quoted as saying: "The lack of clarity is causing needless uncertainty for both landlords and tenants. It is damaging the rental market at a time when there is already a chronic shortage of homes to rent."

Legal and Professional Services

International law firm, Mayer Brown, has described the Bill as potential “bad news for landlords”, as seen within their 2024 statement, highlighting concerns from their sector that this could have a negative effect on property investment.

Will Eastman, Director at Legal for Lettings (part of the Barbon group) has said:

“The bill delivers significant change to the way in which the Private Rental Sector (PRS) will have to operate, with damning consequences for those landlords that fail to comply with the new rules. We will continue to monitor the Bill’s progress closely and support our partner agents with adapting to deliver for their landlords. Whilst we know that there are challenges ahead, there are also opportunities to do things differently”

Opposition Concerns

Rental supply concerns have been raised from the opposition, Shadow Housing Minister in the House of Lords, Baroness Scott. The worry is that there may be unintended consequences resulting from the Bill that may drive some landlords out of the market.

Mixed Industry Reception

Although the debate has sparked concern from landlords over the impact this will have on property management and over clarity on implementation details and the results this may have on the rental market over time, the Government remains steadfast on introducing the Labour Renters’ Rights Bill.

Having a clear idea on when will the renters rights bill become law is very important when it comes to preparation. As there are no published timelines yet, below is an idea of the proposed timeframes:

• 08 September 2025 - Consideration of Amendments by the House of Commons: The Renters’ Rights Bill is expected to receive Royal Assent.
• Early 2026 - Commencement: New tenancy rules are likely to take effect 
• Mid-Late 2026: The Ombudsman and PRS Database will be in operation
• 2035-2037: Property standards regulations via secondary legislation

The Renters’ Rights Bill timeline shows that some of the changes will come into effect at the same time, rather than a phased rollout, which means all tenants will start benefiting from new protections at the same time.

For some background on Vision+ and how it came about; Barbon Insurance Group encompasses both HomeLet and LetAlliance and our job is to offer value-added services to letting agencies across the UK. By partnering with 6,500 agents, our group has been able to work with those who work in the industry to revolutionise the tenant referencing space. They can use our Vision+ market-leading system, which powers the VISTA referencing process and allows us to assess affordability in real time, meaning assessments of both guarantors and tenants can take place immediately. In addition to this, legal services, rent guarantee insurance, insurance for landlords and tenants and media packages (including broadband) can also be provided.

“Unlike other providers our platform is free to use, reducing admin time, ensuring compliance with upcoming changes and providing a more seamless customer journey.”- Jo Dickens, Head of Business Development

By ensuring you’re becoming fit for the future, you can also earn in excess of £300 per property per year. With the removal of tenancy renewals, income opportunity will drop, our proposition adds value to landlords, tenants and drives value for your business; optimising the opportunity to increase cross-sell potential.

You can also gain enhanced protection when it is required most. Rent Guarantee is gathering interest at record levels and we can provide cover for you and your landlords in lieu of these changes coming into place.

Mike Dawson, Head of Sales from HomeLet says:

“We know agents are seeing their revenue impacted by changes in legislation. Our proposition will drive efficiency, provide valued protection and generate revenue for your business, providing our partner agents with new income streams that also benefit their customers at the same time.”

End-to-End Tenancy Management

HomeLet's Vision+ platform helps to streamline compliance by:

• Unifying workflow managing references, deposits, e-signing and Right to Rent
• Fast referencing with 24-hour results which helps to reduce void periods
• Compliance updates that are built-in as regulations change
• Automating admin-heavy processes prone to human error

Enhanced Services

• Rent Guarantee Insurance: This helps to protect landlords during an extended eviction process
• Comprehensive referencing: This is an objective assessment of tenants and guarantors, including benefit recipients
• Deposit alternatives: Looking at and including nil deposit schemes to help widen the tenant pools you can source from
• Legal support: Legal support for landlords and agents, such as that offered by Legal for Lettings (LFL), is important as it includes updates and guidance on new landlord rules, 2025 to ensure you’re staying up to date with the new compliance and gaining the full support you need for knowing and understanding everything thoroughly

Guiding and Supporting Agents and Landlords

Preparing for Implementation

Regardless of whether you’re thinking when will the Renters’ Rights Bill become law or you need a Renters’ Rights Bill summary, preparation is what will help you in these situations:

1. Update processes: Make sure to review tenancy agreements and compliance procedures so that you are fully aware of contract stages and what tenants and landlords will be expecting

2. Train staff: Upskilling staff is essential for ensuring a smooth transition with the introduction of the Renters’ Rights Bill. Make sure every member of your team understands the new legislation for landlords so that they’re equipped to answer questions and to deal with any mediation straight away

3. Engage landlords: It’s a good idea to proactively communicate the changes and benefits to landlords so that they feel well-equipped for any new processes and circumstances they’ll be expected to deal with

4. Invest in technology: Consider introducing platforms such as Vision+ for a more streamlined experience when it comes to compliance. If you have everything all in one place, including conversations, queries and reports from tenants, it’ll be much easier to assess situations and deal with them in a much more timely manner

5. Stay informed: Make sure you are monitoring the Renters’ Rights Bill updates and secondary legislation so that you can react straight away to any queries you may receive

Addressing Common Concerns

Has the Renters’ Rights Bill Been Passed?

The Renters’ Rights Bill is currently in the final stages with Parliament, with Royal Assent expected to take place in late 2025. Implementation will likely follow in the first half of 2026.

Landlord Licensing and Oversight

Enhanced licensing oversight does include mandatory registration and Ombudsman membership. Any non-compliance of this, or other rules listed within the legislation, will risk a landlord fined from licensing oversight of up to £30,000 for especially serious offenses.

NRLA Position

The NRLA is continuing to advocate for a balanced implementation of the Bill to ensure those legitimate landlord needs are protected, while still ensuring tenant rights are supported.