Renters' Rights Bill (Second sitting)

Debate between Lola McEvoy and David Simmonds

Committee stage
Tuesday 22nd October 2024 Public Bill Committees

[David Simmonds]

Q What I am hearing from constituents affected by it is that rent in advance is the method by which they get around this, as well as guarantors potentially, but if the Bill removes that scope, then the one route they have to negotiate—because of their bad credit history—is effectively removed and they are potentially excluded from that market. I am just trying to understand whether this is genuinely a problem.

Liz Davies KC: So it is the rent-in-advance point. We would have to look at what the Bill says about guarantors. I am sure the Minister knows, but that would be the answer—something around advance rent or guarantors. It negates the point earlier, I accept that. This needs some thought.

[Lola McEvoy (Darlington) (Lab)]

Q I want to interrogate further what opportunities you see the landlord database providing for private renters and good landlords as a result of the Bill. Your area of expertise is vast and it is a joy to listen to you contribute, so I would like you to elaborate on any positive outcomes you think could come from the Bill—we want to make sure those can happen.

Liz Davies KC: The fact that landlords are required to be registered will raise the bar for good landlords. We do not yet know what information should be on the database. I cannot remember whether it is in the Bill or the explanatory notes, but it is assumed that any enforcement action or rent repayment orders they have had to make—anything that affects their quality as a landlord—will be there. That must raise the bar and set a minimum standard for landlords, which we currently do not have. Tenants, frequently those at the bottom of the market, are then subject to the consequences and disadvantages of that, so having that bar is really important.

The other thing is that making the information, when we know what it is, publicly available is extremely important because it holds landlords to account. Finally, it also affects the local authority’s ability to bring the various enforcement measures they have under both the Housing Act 2004 and the Bill.

Justin Bates KC: I did not hear Ben Beadle’s evidence this morning, but if you get the right details on the database—so that it is a publicly searchable database that shows you whether your landlord has done anything in a list of prohibited things and so that it has details about the safety of the building, for example whether the gas safety certificate has been uploaded or not—I would have thought that he and the NRLA would have been crying out for something like the landlord database. It gives them what they have always wanted: a way of differentiating the good landlord from the bad landlord and a simple way for a tenant to identify the good landlord and the bad landlord. If I put your name in and it comes up on the database that you are subject to a banning order, I probably should not rent from you. If I put the property address in and discover a prohibition order—those are registered on the database—I probably should not live there. That is what you should be able to do if you can get the database to work properly.

The way you have done it, for obvious reasons, it is all at the level of principle. The critical information is what you will do in secondary legislation about what is accessible. But if you get the database right, you go a really long way towards helping tenants to make informed decisions and helping good landlords to drive bad landlords out.