Renters’ Rights Bill becomes law

Described as the biggest shake-up to renting in England for more than 30 years, a new law to give renters more rights was formally approved on Monday.

In the coming weeks, the government will announce how – and when – each of the changes will come into force.

With almost 20% of UK households renting privately, the changes will affect millions of people.

A home will now be rented on a “periodic” or rolling basis, rather than for a fixed 12 or 24-month contract. That means that if a tenant wants to stay in a property, they can.

The government says this will provide “more security for tenants”.

If a tenant wants to leave they can, by giving two months’ notice, rather than being tied in for a year or more. The government says this will “end the injustice of tenants being trapped paying rent for substandard properties”.

The Renters’ Rights Bill applies to England. Scotland has had periodic agreements for tenancies since 2017, but Wales and Northern Ireland still allow fixed term contracts.

The Bill will also end the practice of “bidding wars”, where people are encouraged to offer over the asking price to secure a property. Instead, there will now be a set asking price that is clear from the outset.

It comes as average UK monthly private rents increased by 5.5%, to £1,354, in the 12 months to September 2025, according to a provisional estimate by the ONS.

In the year to June, more than 11,000 households in England had their homes repossessed by bailiffs following a no-fault eviction process.

The new law means that if a landlord wants to sell or move in to the property, they will not be able to do so in the first 12 months of a tenant moving in. After this, they will need to give four months’ notice.

However, it will still be possible for landlords to evict tenants in certain circumstances.

If a tenant damages the property, commits antisocial behaviour, or falls significantly behind paying the rent – known as rent arrears – the landlord can give notice at any point.

The mandatory threshold for an arrears eviction will increase from two months’ to three months’ rent.

If the landlord gives notice for these reasons and the tenant does not leave within four months, a court decides whether it is reasonable to order possession of the property.

Further changes mean that it will no longer be possible to evict tenants for complaining about poor conditions.

A “Decent Homes Standard” will be introduced, and the new “Awaab’s Law” will also apply at some point. This requires hazards to be repaired within a certain time and is named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak who died after being exposed to mould in his Rochdale home.

Only once a year and only to “the market rate”.

To do so, landlords will need to give two months’ notice.

If a tenant believes the amount is excessive, it can be challenged at a first-tier tribunal, a type of civil court.

There are no changes to the protected deposit schemes currently operating in England. The current rules for deposits still apply. The maximum a landlord can ask for upfront is five weeks’ rent, if the rent for the year is less than £50,000, and up to six weeks’ rent if the yearly rent is £50,000 or more.

However, the maximum rent a landlord can ask for upfront will be limited to one month.

For purpose-built student accommodation, landlords can give two weeks’ notice for the student to leave. This applies to specific institutional providers like university-owned accommodation or companies renting to students.

If a private landlord has been renting a house of multiple occupation to students – where the tenancy was agreed at a maximum six months before the tenancy started – landlords can evict them to allow for new tenancies.

More than half the residents need to be students and the landlord needs to give four months’ notice.

A landlord must consider a request and cannot “unreasonably” refuse. Tenants will be able to challenge “unfair decisions”.

It will be illegal for landlords and agents to discriminate against would-be tenants who receive benefits or who have children.

However, landlords and agents will have the final say on who they let their property to and will continue to do reference and affordability checks.

The Renters Reform Coalition has been campaigning for around 10 years to abolish Section 21 evictions, which allow landlords to evict tenants without a reason within eight weeks.

Director Tom Darling said scrapping them would give tenants “real security in their house”.

Elizabeth Sugden, 35, from Manchester, who contacted BBC News, welcomes the changes. She says she was served a Section 21 notice by her landlord last year as she believed her landlord wanted to “double” the rent.

She said: “It’s literally ruined my life.”

She has been temporarily housed by her local council and her possessions are in storage.

She said: “It’s just like our lives are on hold. That’s the way it feels, because we can’t move forward with anything.”

Chris Norris, chief policy officer of the National Residential Landlords Association, said landlords were feeling “nervous” and hoped for more clarity from the government.

“They don’t really know what will happen in the minority of cases where tenancies go wrong,” he added.

Mr Norris said many landlords would now screen tenants more carefully.

“We’re going to have to look very, very carefully at what the risk is of those new tenants and that’ll be to do with their ability to pay the tenancy, their background, whether they’ve got county court judgments against their name, whether they’ve had a good experience of renting in the past.”

He added that these reforms would put more pressure on the court system – for those wanting to challenge evictions or rent increases – and questioned whether they have capacity to do this.

Landlord Maureen Treadwell said landlords were “losing confidence” and described the bill as a “slow car crash”.

She feels the bill will “backfire” on tenants and disproportionately affect those at the bottom of the private rental market.

“I have lovely tenants who I’ve taken a chance on and they’ve turned out to be great,” she says.

“Would I do that now? No. If they can’t meet the affordability targets – absolutely not.”