We have been closely monitoring the progress of the Renter’s Rights Bill whilst it has been going through Parliament given the major reforms it proposed to the residential rental market in England.
We set out the key aspects of the Bill in our article Looking ahead to Dispute Resolution in 2025 and the Renter’s Rights Act 2025 finally received Royal Assent on Monday 27 October 2025. However, the major provisions of the Act are currently not in force, and these are due to be phased in under a separate implementation strategy which the government is yet to publish.
There are parts of the 2025 Act which will come into force on 27 December 2025 and these give local housing authorities new investigative powers to look into the actions of landlords and lettings agents.
The main provisions within the 2025 Act are the same as most commentators had predicted from the contents of the Bill and they can be summarised as follows:
- No fault evictions using section 21 Housing Act 1988 are abolished
- Fixed term tenancies are abolished
- Tenants can remain in their homes until they give two months’ notice to the landlord to end the tenancy
- Landlords can only remove tenants if they can establish one of the grounds for possession set out in the 2025 Act. These include where the tenant is in breach of the tenancy, where the landlord intends to sell the property, and where the landlord requires the property back in order for themselves or a close family member to live in it.
- Clear timeframes are established for landlords to take action to contain serious hazards
A fully summary of the 2025 Act’s provisions can be found here Guide to the Renters’ Rights Act – GOV.UK
It is likely the government is being cautious with the implementation of the 2025 Act as once it comes into force, the legislation will apply to all new AND existing tenancies. Therefore, the government will want to provide landlords and tenants with plenty of notice given the substantial changes the 2025 Act is making to the law on residential tenancies in England.
As we highlighted in our previous article, the changes do not apply to Wales as housing is a devolved matter, and changes were made to residential tenancies in Wales under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016.
We will provide further updates on the impact of the 2025 Act once the government has published the timeline for its implementation.
If you think that you could benefit from more information, contact our litigation lawyers for further information.
