At last, the long-awaited Renters Rights Bill abolishing assured shorthold tenancies and the s21 notice ‘no-fault eviction’ process, has been published today and started its journey through Parliament. 

It's crammed full of changes for housing management in both the private rented sector and for social landlords granting assured tenancies. 

The Housing Minister has said he hopes for its introduction by summer 2025 at the latest. 

We will be issuing blogs covering all the various aspects over the next week or two.   

Many of the media headlines are focused on the impact on the private rented sector (the previous Government's Renters Reform Bill having stalled due to  fears about the impact on housing supply and the extra pressure on county courts), but for social landlords day-to-day housing management, note the following (in random order!) points that stood out on my first reading:

• Assured shorthold tenancies and fixed-term assured tenancies will be abolished.    
• Numerous new grounds for possession will be introduced to replace when s21 notices might have been used e.g. to cover supported housing such as when the occupier is not engaging with support; stepping stone accommodation and sale of a property by the landlord.  
• There is no additional mandatory ground for rent arrears. The existing mandatory ground 8 is amended to extend the period arrears are due from 8 to 13 weeks.  Arrears due to waiting for Universal Credit payments being excluded. 
• The notice periods for many grounds will increase by a few weeks. The notice period for the mandatory ASB possession ground 7A is however reduced from a month to short notice so is now the same as ground 14 for ASB.  Presumably, the expectation to offer an internal review will fall away too….
• When considering whether to order possession due to ASB the court must consider whether the person against whom the order is sought “has co-operated with any attempt by the landlord to encourage the conduct to cease”. In addition, if the tenant lives in an HMO the court must have particular regard to the effect on other occupiers who share with that person accommodation or facilities within the HMO.  Both sound potentially helpful. 
• Shared ownership leases will cease to be treated as assured shorthold tenancies. The impact of a few words will mean they will need to be ended by forfeiture not by an NSP based on a ground for possession as at present (section 30).  
• The abandonment provisions set out in Housing and Planning Act 2016 which were never brought into force will be repealed. 
• A  surprise change to notices to quit. Once served by a tenant a landlord and tenant can mutually agree to it being withdrawn. 

Lots more analysis to follow!