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The Tenants (Reform) Bill will die unless legislation is quickly passed before Parliament is dissolved on 30 May.
The Bill, whose most high-profile element is the abolition of evictions under Article 21, has passed the House of Commons and is currently at committee stage in the House of Lords.
Typically, that would mean the bill would undergo detailed scrutiny, but that’s unlikely to be accomplished in time, so bipartisan cooperation would be needed to get the bill through.
The final few days in which lawmakers have to finalize bills before Congress adjourns are known as the “washup.”
Speaking about the bill currently before Parliament, Chancellor Rishi Sunak told LBC: “This is a matter for all-party consultation in Parliament. It’s parliamentary procedure. If Parliament is dissolved at the end of the session and there are only a few more days to pass the final parts of the bill, I cannot force it through on my own.”
“We need to have a dialogue with all parties in parliament. That’s our constitution and how parliament works. There’s no need to make political points. That’s the way it is.”
The measures in the Tenancies (Reform) Bill are being introduced at an extremely slow pace.
Its main elements were proposed by former Prime Minister Theresa May in 2019, but the bill was not introduced into Parliament until May 2023.
It took until April 2024 for the bill to be read a second time in the House of Commons, amid reports of rebellion by Conservative MPs over the abolition of Article 21 evictions.
The current bill provides that Article 21 can only be repealed following judicial review.
“No-fault eviction” has caused controversy on both sides.
Tenants tend to consider Section 21 unfair as it means they can be evicted through no fault of their own, but there are also anecdotes of landlords evicting tenants in revenge when they demand payment for repairs.
But landlords have expressed concern about the long time it takes to use Section 8 evictions, given that they have to go through a court system that is not fit for purpose to evict bad tenants. Meanwhile, many landlords are defending their right to do as they like with their property.
Other elements of the bill include: fixed term tenancies will become the norm and will be renewable without set deadlines; tenants will be able to challenge unfair rent increases through the courts; it will be illegal to refuse to rent to someone because they are on welfare or have children; there will be a new national landlord register; landlords will have grounds for eviction if they sell the property or want to move in; and renting to pets will become the norm, provided tenants have pet insurance.
Such a far-reaching bill would undoubtedly be controversial if it failed.