House of Lords rewrites Renters’ Rights Bill

Could last-minute battles over pet insurance, student lets and court capacity delay the Renters’ Rights Bill?

The House of Lords has approved several key amendments to the Renters’ Rights Bill with the backing of property industry groups. If these changes make it into the final legislation:

• Landlords will be allowed to take an extra three weeks’ rent as a pet damage deposit. The government previously wanted to let landlords require pet-owning tenants to take out pet damage insurance, but scrapped this after warnings from the insurance industry that these policies aren’t widely available, leaving landlords unprotected.

• Landlords of one- and two-bedroom student properties will be given a mandatory eviction ground to end tenancies to make room for the next year’s students. In the unamended bill, this only applied to HMOs.

• The government will have to review courts’ capacity to handle rent review cases when tenants dispute Section 13 rent increase notices. Landlords who evict tenants to sell a property will be able to let it again after six months, instead of a year as in the unamended bill.

The Lords have also called on the government to carry out annual reviews on the bill’s impact on rents and housing availability, as well as a three-year review into tenancy security, repossessions and homelessness.

What does this mean for the Renters’ Rights Bill?

Labour’s solid majority means they have the votes to overturn the Lords’ amendments, but unless they can come up with a landlord-friendly compromise, the Lords may amend the bill again.

Labour politicians may be unwilling to weaken protections for tenants. On the issue of pet deposits, Housing Minister Baroness Taylor said that ministers didn’t want to “leave tenants in a position where they are unable to comply with impractical conditions that a landlord may place on the tenant”, and suggested that extra deposits would only be considered if pet damage costs were “frequently” higher than the current deposit cap.

Whether or not this could lead to a prolonged back and forth, it’s unusual for the House of Lords to return the same bill to the Commons more than once. Amendments from the Lords are often just intended to start another round of debate in the Commons.  

That being said, holding another debate in the Commons (and in the Lords, if the Commons rejects their amendments) means that the chance of the bill passing before the summer recess on 22 July is effectively gone. It could be squeezed into the gap between the end of the summer recess on 1 September and the start of conference season on 16 September, but may have to compete with other government priorities. Otherwise, it will have to wait until October or later.