As MPs waved the Renters’ Rights Bill through Parliament this week, landlord compliance expert Des Taylor of Landlord Licensing & Defence has warned that the legislation is being mis-sold to the public as tenant protection when it is designed to increase local authority income and control over the private rented sector.
He said: “The Renters’ Rights Bill isn’t about protecting tenants – it’s about protecting council budgets.
“Behind the headlines of ‘fairness’ and ‘balance’ lies a different reality: More powers. More penalties. Longer voids. Less control.
“Landlords are being boxed in with restrictions that benefit only one group – and it’s not the renters. This Bill isn’t what they’re telling you.”
Taylor points to the abolition of Section 21 which will fundamentally change how landlords and tenants interact.
He says that with Section 21 evictions removed, landlords will be forced onto a much slower Section 8 process to regain possession.
That change, he argues, will push more landlords into lengthy legal battles while delaying property turnover for over a year in some cases.
He continued: “Landlords could be waiting 12 to 16 months to recover a property from a non-paying tenant.
“In that time, councils save money on emergency housing because tenants technically remain ‘housed’ – even if they’re months in arrears. It’s a cynical fix for a broken social housing system.”
Taylor points to another consequence hidden in plain sight: revenue generation.
He believes the Bill’s deeper purpose is to widen the enforcement net for local authorities, giving them broader discretion to levy civil penalties which rocket from £5,000 up to £25,000, for administrative mistakes and minor breaches.
Taylor commented: “Every new power comes with a price tag, and that price will be paid by landlords through fines and by tenants through higher rents.
“It’s being dressed up as tenant protection, but really it’s a mechanism for councils to collect income while claiming moral virtue.”
The Bill also risks increasing void periods and financial stress across the sector.
There will be longer possession timelines, more compliance demands and growing uncertainty over tenancy length which will make professional landlords think twice about investing further.
Taylor warns that this tightening web of regulation will have a ripple effect across the market.
He went on: “There will be less investment in local rental housing as smaller landlords exit, and the rising compliance costs will be passed on to tenants.
“There will also be worsening availability for vulnerable renters as councils rely on the PRS to plug social housing gaps.”
While the government insists the Bill will make renting fairer, Mr Taylor argues it will instead entrench inequality.
“Tenants in arrears may lose the most,” he said. “Once a landlord has to rely on Section 8, councils can claim the tenant made themselves intentionally homeless.
“That means no housing duty owed, no emergency accommodation and no help. It’s a quiet but devastating policy trick.”
Calling the Bill ‘politically driven’, Taylor urges agents, landlords and property professionals to stay vigilant.
He added: “This legislation changes the relationship between landlords, tenants and the state.
“We’re moving towards a system of revenue-focused enforcement, not fair regulation.
“Every landlord should read the fine print and prepare accordingly.”
Agents urged to embrace Renters’ Rights Bill and put ‘people over profits’
Councils don’t give a sh**te about anything unless they can see it as a profit making exercise. And just think 32% of our council tax contributions goes into their pension fund !!!
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I am a ‘small’ landlord, but I’ve been selling since 2016. I had decent rental profits, and very good capital appreciation in London, but S24 put paid to that. Then one Northern tenant, a feckless little sh**e, simply stopped paying rent during lockdown, despite earning good money (when he wasn’t pis**d or off his head on drugs), the government self-employed handouts, and as I later found out, UC. I had just retired and he was earning more than me!
I had one other rental remaining, and between the 2, I found myself heavily in the red. Fortunately, I had not spent any of my profits over the 11 years I’d had them, but as the months passed, my health declined, as did my bank balance. It took 15 months to evict him (using a specialist company) and apparently I was lucky because Sheffield had a short list!
My point is, I had plenty of cash to hand, and while this situation used up all the profits from that property for 11 years, I could easily pay my bills. But we know the court system is in a mess, and getting worse, despite significant government investment in new systems, and judges are becoming more and more ‘obstructive’,
I can see eviction times skyrocketing, which will result in many small landlords going to the wall. They are already relying on their tenant(s) paying every £, every month, and are struggling to meet high mortgage costs, plus every other cost. For many, profit is non-existent. As soon as one tenant, maybe their only tenant, stops paying, they are finished as a landlord.
They will need to wait 3 months to issue a S8, and then the tenant can play games by paying a little just before the court hearing, and so it starts again. It may have already taken 18 months to reach court, and this will continue for as long as the tenant wants, because the RRA has legalised non-payment of rent. The landlord may not even be able to afford the legal costs of eviction; solicitor, court fees, bailiffs, let alone the likely costs of property remediation. It’s also likely the tenant will be claiming UC, but good luck getting that paid direct! To top it off, the tenant will complain to the council about repairs not being done or, and this will be the killer, mould and damp, probably cause by the tenant’s lifestyle choices. The landlord won’t have the money to do the work, and will be hit with a huge fine by the council.
Landlords will feel helpless and hopeless. Their health will deteriorate, and worse. I used to thrive on stress throughout my career, but my experience affected me badly. It is likely the only way out for the landlord will be to default on the mortgage and let the lender deal with the tenant. This will destroy the landlord’s credit rating, and most likely leave an ongoing debt on top of his usual costs. I believe mortgage default and bankruptcy in the PRS will spiral.
When you start to pull all the pieces together, it really does feel like the RRA will finally put an end to the small landlord, who is only looking to supplement his pension by providing essential housing. Maybe, today’s young landlords won’t even have a pension to supplement when they reach my age.
What a thoroughly depressing scenario. Someone, please, tell me why I’m wrong.
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I wish I could say that you are wrong, but you are not. The only point I would add is that benefit tenants do not stand a chance of finding decent accommodation.
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What do shelter and generation rent know about people on benefits. They think everyone lives in London and has to make a choice between paying their rent or their daily Gingerbread Latte.
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Des Taylor’s rant is packed with so much nonsense it could power a dodgy gas boiler. The Renters’ Rights Bill protects people from being turfed out of their homes for no reason. If following safety laws and proving cause for eviction feels like persecution, maybe the issue isn’t the Bill?
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You have obviously never had to evict a tenant for antisocial behaviour, a process which takes a year to amass the evidence before any legal action can be taken. Meanwhile, all the neighbours have left, leaving voids.
I have just evicted one such tenant, the whole process from start to the bailiff calling took nearly two years, a period during which nearly every night all the neighbours were woken with his drunken ravings. It’s not fun or cheap.
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I know exactly how you will have felt. At least mine was ‘only’ 15 months of hell (including child porn over a neighbour’s Wi-Fi ) and no rent.
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So because you once rented to a drunk, other families should live under threat of eviction? Who’s fault is the drunk guy, the tenant’s, or the landlord who didn’t do his due diligence, or outsourced that due diligence. You wouldn’t hand your car keys to someone with a history of drink driving, then blame the DVLA when they crash. By your logic, maybe you should stop driving because somebody else crashed a car. Protecting your convenience isn’t more important than a family’s right to live in security.
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Protecting my feckless tenant’s neighbours from his behaviour was more important than his right to live in my property. They pleaded with me to evict him, but the law prevented it. It will soon be even more difficult.
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You have obviously never been a landlord and had to deal with a feckless tenant. Decent tenants never had anything to fear from section 21.
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RIP the PRS
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Well, blimey, what a lot of doom and gloom this article and comments are! Here’s the thing, I actually think very little will change.
We will see smaller landlords either leave or have to adopt professional services, we will see the growth of institutional landlords (more akin to markets like Germany), the market will, in short, consolidate- both in the landlord and letting agent market in the next 5 years.
Concerned about rent arrears and evictions? Eliminate the risk with a rent and legal warranty. For less than £400 a year, you can indemnify your entire rental income and the legal costs to regain possession without even an excess payment.
Around 85% of tenancies are ended by tenants in the current landscape- that is unlikely to change.
What does the typical tenant want? A safe, clean, well-maintained home where they can pay their rent and, otherwise, get on with life. Moving is stressful and expensive- so tenants won’t leave without good reason.
For landlords or agents who knowingly deliver poor service and/or property standards- your income and yields are about to plummet as tenants leave regularly, voids escalate…. and rightly so.
We’re definitely seeing more landlords turn to a fully managed service and, also, more landlords talking about the fact they want their tenants to love their home and have a great rental experience.
There will be those impacted- tenants that landlords & agents can no longer ‘take a chance’ on, landlords impacted by major maintenance issues outside their control or struggling to sell. But many of the risks, from pet damage to rental income to compliance and more, can be mitigated or eliminated through insurance, diligence and a good agent.
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I agree, but simply saying “There will be those impacted… landlords impacted by major maintenance issues outside their control… ‘ is a bit of a throwaway comment. It is those major issues outside their control which are likely to become extremely challenging under the RRA.
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But surely that’s where our expertise comes in. Landlords can mitigate most, if not all, of those risks with decent insurance products. We can’t legislate an entire industry based on fringe cases, we just need to figure out how best to advise and support them no? Is it really any more fair that tenants are currently locked into a tenancy agreement enduring such issues for months on the premise that it’s ‘outside of the landlord’s control’? Tenants cant insure the impact to their quality of life- but landlords can insure against loss of income. I think that’s the crucial point here.
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Tenants can ‘insure’ against the impact of mould and damp on the quality of their life, especially when it is them that are causing it, through the application of common sense and ‘investing’ in their own humidity mitigation to improve the quality of ‘their’ lives. Why should landlords be held responsible for tenant’s irresponsible behaviour?
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Landlords are held responsible for tenants irresponsible behaviour. Pet damage insurance will not cover a negligent pet owner who leaves a pet alone for long periods. Mould and damp is always blamed on the landlord no matter what steps he takes. We know there are bad tenants who will now live happily rent free for months before a court date is reached. Landlords have little chance of ever seeing arrears paid. s21 was more beneficial for tenants than landlords. We will now see more tenants with a CCJ and little hope of ever finding another rental.
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But it’s fair to say that, also, tenants are impacted by the conduct of rogue agents and landlords. Fair wear and tear will still be fair wear and tear. Detailed and impeccable inventories and regular and detailed inspections will be key. Proactive tackling of mousiture & condensation will be key- so smart sensors and alert systems will be critical if this is a bona fide concern. The notice change will not impact whether or not a tenant will pay their arrears. We’ve successfully applied mould charges to tenants. Again, lets not forget that the average tenant wants a warm, dry, mould free home thats well maintained so they can just get on with their lives. This default attitude that tenants are simply there to ‘pull one over’ is just as unjust as thinking every landlord wants to rip tenants off whilst putting them in slum housing. Its not accurate or fair- so lets not do it. Show me any investment or business that doesnt carry costs or risks like we do in the PRS?
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“Show me any investment or business that doesn’t carry costs or risks like we do in the PRS?”
I know of no other business that can be charged £40,000 (circa £80,000 before tax) for minor admin errors without a court hearing, that can be fined a minimum of £1,000,000 for failing to perform sanctions checking properly (without being offered government training).
For the record Landlords provide a service, the investment aspect is now virtually non existent.
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OK- and when it’s NOT the tenant’s fault? Can we stop defaulting to the rogue element and focus on the genuinely impacted.
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When it’s not the tenant’s fault, landlords deal with the problem because they don’t want their property to degrade. Unless, of course, you are a rogue landlord, and deserve the council to come down on you like a ton of damp, mouldy bricks.
What we are talking about is the challenge which will face decent landlords who will be forced to take responsibility for tenants lifestyle choices. That is not acceptable, but we will have no choice in the matter.
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You are either not a landlord, or if you are one, you haven’t been one long enough to appreciate the real and practical concerns being voiced.
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I would like to know where you can get blanket legal and rent guarantee insurance for less than £400 please.
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I use Alan Boswel Insurance £250.
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Direct Line with Legal Protection and Rent Guarantee.
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