Landlords slapped with new 'ban' in 'watershed moment for renters'

The renters’ rights bill from the new Labour Party government goes further than expected to ensure tenants pay no more than advertised price, it has emerged.

A Bill will ban England and Wales landlords from rental bidding wars. The renters’ rights bill from the new Labour Party government goes further than expected to ensure tenants pay no more than advertised price, it has emerged.

It will ban property owners from accepting more rent than they have asked for, in the UK’s first ban on competitive bidding in the housing market. Polly Neate, the chief executive of the housing charity Shelter, said: “The renters’ rights bill is a watershed moment for renters, and the government is right to commit to tackling issues like bidding wars that have locked people out of renting for years.”

A Labour source said to the Guardian newspaper: “We will empower tenants to challenge rent increases designed to force them out by the backdoor and introduce new laws to end the practice of rental bidding wars by landlords and letting agents.” The bill will also stop landlords barring tenants from keeping pets unless they have good reason to do so.

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And it will force them to give four months’ notice before evicting someone because they need to sell the property, house a family member or move back in. Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, spoke out to LBC radio on Wednesday.

He said: “We are going to decisively level the playing field between landlord and tenant through this bill. We’re going to provide tenants, finally, after many years of waiting and many promises, with the protections they need against arbitrary evictions, against unreasonable within-tenancy rent hikes.”

But some landlord groups say the new bill will simply encourage property owners to increase the advertised rental price. One industry executive said: “This will just mean that landlords advertise their properties for more than they think they will get and then see who is able to get closest to the listed rent.”