Renters’ Rights Bill

Debate between Lord Hacking and Lord Fuller

Tuesday 1st July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Fuller (Con)]

My Lords, it feels as if we are going back to Amendment 1 at the start of this debate and the theme of that essential freedom to contract between consenting parties, which had support on both sides of the House from the noble Lords, Lord Hacking and Lord Truscott, and others. Amendment 43 is a practical solution and an optional one. It provides a route for an otherwise unrentable tenant to find a tenancy and it is a practical expression of good faith. We have had some examples of where the freedom—it is a freedom and not an obligation—to offer up to six months’ rent in advance can be helpful.

My noble friend Lady Scott mentioned the case of students, especially foreign students. Foreign students often want to secure accommodation before they get on the plane to come to this country. At that point, they may not even have a UK bank account. They certainly will not have references or a track record. The only practicable way they can secure a tenancy with that impaired record is to pay in advance.

Earlier today, we spoke about the potential abuses in holiday hotspots, where somebody may say, “I am going to stay for a whole year”, as they contract in June, whereas in fact they immediately give notice to quit after the August bank holiday. The noble Lord, Lord Truscott, who is not in his place, told the House that the differential between the Airbnb rate and the year-round rate is something like 49%. This is a way for somebody who was sincere about entering into a long-term arrangement for, say, six months—but it would not have to be exactly six months—with a potential landlord to demonstrate that they were not just the carpetbagging, holiday-hotspot people. They could pay in advance and that would be helpful.

My noble friend mentioned those with an impaired record. It would be possible to have a guarantor who stumped up for those people with a weak covenant strength. For those who have cash—I appreciate that not everybody does—coming to an accommodation with the landlord for paying up front sometimes results in considerably less rent, and in those cases both landlord and tenant benefit considerably.

Amendment 43 would help both the landlord and tenant to come to an arrangement to their mutual advantage. I know it is not for everybody, but without this provision the unrentables will remain unrented. The Bill’s objective, as we have heard from the Minister, is to get people into safe, secure, good accommodation, and for a small number of people the amendment would provide the otherwise unprovidable. I support it entirely.

[Lord Hacking (Lab)]

My Lords, I very much support Amendments 43 and 45, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, and supported by the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson. I can give a practical example of this. A very nice couple from Chile wanted to rent one of our flats. They had no credit record at all here in England so there was no way to check that. There was no efficient way to check the previous landlord, which is the other step that a landlord normally takes to ascertain whether these are suitable tenants to go into the property. They had the money. Both of them were coming to work in London for a year for an academic purpose. Enabling them to pay some money in advance—I have forgotten whether it was six months or more—was therefore a sensible compromise. They turned out to be delightful tenants and highly reliable, and we were delighted to have them in our house.

I also want to speak to Amendment 46. It is to protect landlords when a tenant has signed up to take the property on a certain date but has failed to pay either the first month’s rent in advance or the deposit. I suggest that it would be entirely wrong, because the tenancy agreement had been signed and so forth, if the landlord were then obliged to take that tenant into the property. Remember that a landlord cannot chase unpaid rent for three months, and then there is the delay in getting a hearing in the county court, so that would be onerous for the landlord to deal with. Moreover, if the tenant has not paid either the first month’s rent or the deposit in advance, he probably does not have the money available, and the high probability is that the landlord will have to suffer that tenant in his property for three or four months without any payment at all.

I therefore thought it would be sensible to make it quite plain—my amendment starts:

“For the avoidance of doubt”—


that the landlord does not have to give the tenant keys to the property or allow them to get into it when the tenant has not paid. I added a further bit to the amendment to enable the landlord, if the tenant fails to pay the first month’s rent or the deposit for a further 28 days, to take the next step of having the lease annulled. That is to make it plain in the Bill what the position of the landlord is after having entered into an agreement with a tenant who then does not pay either the first month’s rent or the deposit.