The unintended consequences of the Renters Rights Act 2025

After a long wait, The Renters’ Rights Act (RRA) has finally arrived and as the excitement subsides, I look at some of the unintended consequences the RRA has brought.

• Longer notice periods placing additional financial pressure on tenants

When a notice to end the tenancy is served, the landlord, will likely, depending on the circumstances, hold the tenant to the commitment to pay rent for the entire notice period – now 2 full months. It is possible the departing tenant will likely be asked to commit to their new tenancy elsewhere earlier than they would ideally like and expected to pay the tenancy deposit (and possibly the rent) whilst still paying rent for their current tenancy with no tenancy deposit for their current tenancy yet returned.

There will be instances where the landlord will be content for the departing tenant to leave before the expiry of their notice for example when selling the property, but for many landlords this will not be acceptable.

• Less properties in the private rented sector

Many landlords have sold, are selling or plan to sell in the near future. A recent survey found the average age of landlords is 58 and with relatively little interest from younger investors, we are likely to see a marked decline in the number of private rented properties. This reverses the exponential growth we saw in the sector in the 90s when section 21 was introduced – now banned unfortunately by the RRA.

Factors driving this include:

• Changes to legislation and tax rules over the last decade not as favourable to landlords
• Lack of understanding of the RRA
• Fear of the penalties for breaches of the RRA
• Time and money cost of compliance
• Loss of some control of the property
• Lack of confidence in court system capacity

As more landlords continue to exit the private rented sector, there will be even less available accommodation for tenants putting even further upward pressure on rents.

• More people will become homeless

Prospective tenants who have not lived in the UK for the last 6 months, tenants with a poor credit score or bad credit history, and tenants who cannot prove their income meets industry guidelines will find it difficult to secure a property in the private sector. Marginal tenants had historically been asked to pay rent in advance (say 6 months) – now banned under the RRA.

Because the state does not have anything to offer and because there are huge waiting lists for council housing, more people will sadly become homeless.

Tenants who are not resident in the UK will find it difficult to find accommodation in the private rented sector as they may not have a credit footprint and overseas references are difficult to obtain and not always trusted. Before the RRA was enacted, such candidates were invited to pay rent in advance; now banned under the RRA. Proposals by Reform will block foreign nationals from seeking accommodational the private sector.

• More tenants make themselves homeless

All tenants who are evicted because they have not paid rent will be deemed to have made themselves voluntarily homeless and will not be able to get accommodated by the state at all. They will become permanently homeless. There will be a huge increase in homelessness as a result. (Note that under the old abandoned, so-called No Fault Section 21 process, in which landlords did not have to give a reason for repossession, even though in many cases there were arrears, tenants were not deemed by the state to have made themselves voluntarily homeless).

• increase workload for courts

The no-court hearing Section 21 route has been scrapped so more cases will need a court hearing. In some areas many court cases are taking over a year, and this will only lengthen further. Add to this the wait for a bailiff to enforce a court order. Included in this are property tribunals – tenants can free of charge challenge rent increase and each case will need to be assessed by the tribunal which has very few members.

• Problems for tenants wanting to move into a leasehold property with a pet

Under the RRA the date between the tenant making a request to keep a pet at the property and the date the landlord gives or refuses any consent to keep a pet may be up to 35 days. If a prospective tenant has just had their offer to move into a property accepted and the commencement date of the proposed tenancy is less than 35 days, the tenant may be starting a tenancy without consent to keep their pet.