The Law Commission has this month published its proposed draft Rented Homes Bill, which aims to radically overhaul the existing law relating to residential tenancies, making renting easier, cheaper and more flexible.
It is hoped that the Bill will simplify residential lettings by developing standard "secure" and "standard" contracts which will replace the current range of tenancy and licence types (with the exception of Rent Act tenancies). These should provide landlords and tenants with a clearer understanding of their rights and obligations, and the circumstances in which the tenant’s rights to occupy may come to an end.
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The Law Commission has this month published its proposed draft Rented Homes Bill, which aims to radically overhaul the existing law relating to residential tenancies, making renting easier, cheaper and more flexible.
It is hoped that the Bill will simplify residential lettings by developing standard "secure" and "standard" contracts which will replace the current range of tenancy and licence types (with the exception of Rent Act tenancies). These should provide landlords and tenants with a clearer understanding of their rights and obligations, and the circumstances in which the tenant’s rights to occupy may come to an end.
In terms of specifics the draft Bill proposes: -
- Standardising notice rules on the termination of tenancies, proposing a standard rule whereby possession proceedings cannot be started until one month after possession notice has been given to the "Contract-Holder".
- Replacing the statutory grounds for possession in the Rent and Housing Acts with two contractual classes of grounds: -
- Breach of the occupation contract; and
- Estate management grounds
- Landlords with "Standard Contracts" will be able to rely upon a mandatory "Notice Only" ground for possession (i.e. similar to that currently available for assured shorthold tenancies) and also a mandatory ground where there are serious rent arrears.
- Abolishing the six-month minimum term requirement in relation to assured shorthold tenancies.
The Law Commission has prepared a helpful summary of its final report. Click here. The report itself is published in two volumes. Volume 1 (click here) explains the Commission’s recommendations and contains illustrative model contracts, and Volume 2 (click here) contains the draft Bill itself.
We shall be monitoring progress. It will be for the Government to decide whether to adopt the Law Commission’s recommendations and lay the draft Bill before Parliament.
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.
The original publication date for this article was 26/05/2006.
