Renters Rights Bill 2025 - Key Updates

The Renters’ Rights Bill is making rapid legislative strides and appears poised to become law in the very near future. While some provisions are solidifying (like the right to have pets and flexible notice), others may be delayed (especially evictions and tribunal readiness). If enacted, it's one of the most sweeping reforms of England's private rental market in decades, balancing added tenant stability and quality standards with concerns over supply, cost, and legal system capacity.

The Third Reading in the Lords is scheduled for 21st July, after which it will return to the Commons to resolve any amendments, before heading for Royal Assent.

What's New (since May-July 2025)?

Amendments passed at report stage:

• Pet insurance clause removed; Ministers succeeded in deleting mandatory pet insurance, reducing barriers to renting with pets.

• Flexible notice agreements; Introduced provisons allowing shorter notice periods (<2 months) with joint tenant agreement

  
  

  Lords’ Voices & Pushbacks

• Judicial impact concerns: Peers raised issues about overload on courts and the need for system readiness; government resisted delaying the abolition of Section 21

• Guarantor restrictions: Some advocated limiting guarantor demands to help low-income and benefit tenants, but these were generally rejected

• Pet rights strengthened: Peers pushed for greater security for renters with pets; government clarified that consent is only revocable in rare antisocial cases.

Royal assent could happen before the end of July 2025 - so not long at all before we can see some changes come into play. However we suspect this is unlikely, due to Parliament's summer break and some more negotiations required between the Houses. We at Heyworth PM expect the changes to come anywhere between October 2025 and January 2026.

The Bill is an overhaul of private rented sector protections:

• Abolish Section 21 ("no-fault") evictions

• Convert all assured shorthold tenancies into rolling periodic ones

• Limit rent increases to once annually, via Section 13 notices (*this is already in law!)

• Ban rental bidding wars and restrict rent-in-advance to one month

• Introduce mandatory Decent Homes Standard (including Awaab's Law)

• Mandate an independent PRS Ombudsman and a digital PRS database

• Ban discrimination against tenants on benefits or with children

• Enable tenants to keep pets (with reasonable refusal rules)