Advisers are following the progress of the Renters' Rights Bill through Parliament. Here's how changes to the law happen and when they might start to take effect.
Published May 2025
New law to protect private tenants
The Renters' Rights Bill was presented to the House of Commons in September 2024 by the Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
The new Bill aims to improve renting conditions for private tenants by abolishing 'no fault' evictions and fixed-term tenancies. It changes the rules on rent increases, rent in advance, and the right of private tenants to keep a pet.
New rules will extend the Decent Homes Standard and Awaab's law to the private rented sector.
Progress of the Bill through Parliament
In May 2025 the Bill was at the Committee stage in the House of Lords after the House of Commons voted to pass it on the third reading. This is swift progress through Parliament.
Stages of the Parliamentary process
The House of Commons and the House of Lords, known collectively as the legislature, play key roles in law making. By the time the Renters' Rights Bill becomes law, Members in both Houses will have had the opportunity to debate the contents, consult experts, propose amendments, and vote for or against it.
Stages in the House of Commons
A bill must pass through various reading, committee, and report stages before the House of Commons votes to allow it to become law.
| Stage in the Commons | Purpose of the stage |
|---|---|
| First reading | The bill is officially presented, but no debate happens |
| Second reading | The first chance to debate the bill and an opportunity for the Opposition to respond |
| Committee | Members scrutinise the bill, consult experts, and vote on clauses and proposed amendments |
| Report | All Members of the House can debate the bill |
| Third reading and vote | A final chance to debate, and a vote to allow the bill to proceed |
A majority of MPs in the House of Commons must vote in favour of a bill before it can proceed to the House of Lords.
The role of the House of Lords
The House of Lords is composed of hereditary peers, appointed members from various political parties, and non-party peers with expertise in specific areas. Its primary function is to scrutinise new legislation like the Renters' Rights Bill and hold the Government to account.
New legislation follows broadly the same process of readings, debates, and reports as in the House of Commons.
Proposed amendments can cause delays getting a bill passed, but the Lords cannot normally block a bill entirely.
Manifesto commitments
The Salisbury-Addison convention, in place since 1945, states that the Lords will not reject a bill that encompasses the manifesto promises of an elected Government. The convention recognises the 'direct democratic legitimacy' of making election commitments law.
The commitment to abolish section 21 and improve conditions for renters was a clear priority for the incoming Government.
Royal Assent
Royal Assent is the King's agreement to make the bill an Act of Parliament. It is now largely a formality, with the last refusal occurring in 1708.
Once the assent is given, the new Act of Parliament is given a commencement date. This date could be immediately or in the future.
Given the extent of the new legislation, the Government is likely to allow time between assent and implementation, to allow landlords, local authorities, and tenants time to digest the changes.
Legal framework in primary legislation
The Renters' Rights Bill is the proposed primary legislation. It will be called the Renters' Rights Act once it receives Royal Assent.
This Bill contains substantial detail compared to some recent primary legislation. That means advisers can start preparing by getting to grips with major changes, such as the end of fixed-term tenancies and the new grounds for possession.
Amendments to existing legislation
Some parts of the Bill are presented as a series of small tweaks to other legislation such as the Housing Act 1988. For example, the changes to rent increases which mean a landlord must follow a statutory process to set a higher rent.
Rather than setting out the text of the new legislation in full, the Bill requires the reader to replace a word or phrase in the existing law. This can make it tricky to read and understand the effect of the changes.
The new text of the section can be read as intended once changes to the amended legislation are published. Until then, anyone consulting the source material is presented with a puzzle, needing to cross-reference the Bill with the law it proposes to amend.
When sections of the Bill will come into force
The Bill includes commencement timescales for some key protections. For example, new powers for local authorities to investigate private landlords for breaches of the law will start two months after the Act comes into force.
Some sections of the Act could take years to be fully implemented. The Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, which reformed courts and bailiffs law, produced secondary legislation as late as 2016.
Detailed rules in secondary legislation
Acts of Parliament often contain clauses that delegate law making powers to a named official, usually the Secretary of State for the relevant Government department. The delegated laws are known as secondary legislation.
Specialist drafting committees make detailed rules, often about how the law will operate in practice, without holding up the passage of primary legislation.
One example from the Renters' Rights Bill is landlord redress schemes, which require the Secretary of State to set out the specifics of the scheme in regulations that could be issued months or years in the future.
How advisers can spot secondary legislation
Secondary legislation includes regulations and orders, called statutory instruments. Advisers can identify them by a unique SI number.
An example of regulations from the Leasehold Reform Act 2024 has SI 2025/157 in the title because it was the 157th statutory instrument made in 2025.
Timescales for secondary legislation
Secondary legislation can be made much more quickly than an Act of Parliament because it does not need to be debated and passed through all the stages. This is more efficient for the Government, but it has led to criticism that the lack of accountability is incompatible with democratic processes.
It can be hard to predict how long it will take to draft and pass secondary legislation, adding to the uncertainty around timeframes for key changes to renters' rights.
Interpreting the law in practice
Part of Parliament's task in amending and debating the Renters' Rights Bill is to ensure everyone, including the courts, knows how to interpret it. However robust this process, landlords, tenants, and their lawyers are bound to disagree about one or more of the 149 proposed sections.
District judges in the County Court will likely face the first arguments about how to interpret the new laws when they deal with housing possession lists. A small number of those cases might reach the appeal courts.
Decisions of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court will eventually supply valuable certainty through legal precedents. This could happen within a few months of the Act coming into force, or could take years.
Rules of statutory interpretation
The courts have guidelines for how to determine the meaning of laws, called the rules of statutory interpretation. These rules have emerged through the common law system of deciding and recording cases.
One key rule is purposive intent, which allows courts to factor in what Parliament intended to do when it passed the law. Hansard, the official transcript of Parliamentary debates, questions, and answers, is often consulted.
Interpretation guidance in the legislation
For advisers, clarity can often be found in sections of the Bill dedicated to interpreting specific words and phrases, and in the explanatory memorandum that accompanies new law.
Government guidance to accompany the law
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government is drafting guidance for tenants, landlords, and local authorities to accompany the new legislation. The guidance should provide more detail about how the law will apply in practice.
How to stay up to date
The Parliament website shows all new legislation, and what stage it is at. It explains the process the Bill must follow and covers different types of legislation like statutory instruments.
What to expect from the Renters' Rights Act on Shelter for Professionals details the contents of the Bill and how they change the law as it stands today.
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