Renters' Rights Bill (Second sitting)

Debate between Gideon Amos and Sam Carling

Committee stage
Tuesday 22nd October 2024 Public Bill Committees

[Mr Amos]

Q So that would be the control?

Victoria Tolmie-Loverseed: Yes.

[Sam Carling (North West Cambridgeshire) (Lab)]

Q I wanted to pick up on a couple of points from your written evidence on joint tenancies. Under the new Bill, if one student leaves, you have the problem where the whole tenancy might end up collapsing. Do you have any thoughts about what the Bill could do to address those concerns, save the arguments that you have already made about having a specialist student tenancy? Also, on that point about the student tenancy, would you agree that there is a bit of an issue at the moment wherein quite a lot of students drop out of university, which is an issue in and of itself, but are locked into tenancies? Would this Bill address that situation?

Victoria Tolmie-Loverseed: The joint tenancy issue is problematic, and there is no way to get around it. If you are in a joint tenancy, all the tenants are essentially treated as one. If one tenant gives notice, all the other tenants, in theory, could be asked to leave at the same time. I think landlords will be pragmatic about it and seek to manage that process actively. Unless it is in their interests to regain possession of the whole property, I think most landlords will try to smooth things out and find a resolution.

Typically, the remaining tenants are liable for the rent on the room that has been vacated, and I think it would be very difficult for landlords to backfill, so the remaining tenants may find that the rent increases. That is going to cause quite a lot of rupture and disruption in the student market. We think about half of tenancies are on a joint basis at the moment, and that is going to be really disruptive. I cannot think of a way around it. Unless there was some sort of ability to have a fixed term, I think it is going to be really difficult. Sorry; I have forgotten the second bit of the question.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Amos]

Q I was interested to hear the rest of your points. One area that is not regulated in the Act is the regulation of letting agents. Is that something that Acorn would like to see happen? Feel free to expand on your points.

Anny Cullum: We would like to see letting agents regulated. Especially with the issues around bidding wars and discrimination when you enter a new home or the private sector for the first time, in the majority of cases that will be about your experience with your letting agency. We as Acorn suggest mystery shopping, like when Trading Standards sends kids into shops to mystery shop and sees whether they will sell them alcohol. Maybe we should be sending people into letting agencies and seeing whether they are being discriminated against on the basis of any protected characteristic, but particularly on the basis of being benefit claimants. That part could be strengthened in the Bill.

[Sam Carling]

Q Picking up on the point you made about illegal evictions, is there anything we can do with the landlord database to help with that and some of the other issues you raise?

Anny Cullum: I think the landlord database will be excellent. It is important from our point of view that the landlord database includes information for tenants on previous enforcement action that has been taken against landlords, because you can then make an informed choice as a tenant about where you would like to rent. That will be another way to deter landlords from behaving illegally because they know they will have a mark against their name on the register. We hope the register will mean that, rather than tenants trying to compete for homes at the moment, landlords are competing for tenants by behaving in a good way and providing a good service. Having that sort of information on the database would be incredibly helpful.