Newcastle student union warns of Rental Reform bill 'chaos'

Student properties are typically let many months before tenants move in at the start of the academic year

A proposed ban on "no-fault" evictions could be "chaotic" and "decimate" the student housing market, it is claimed.

The Renters Reform Bill was introduced in May, and this week charities urged faster progress.

However, Newcastle University students' union said the plans could "cause issues for tenants and landlords".

The government has said the bill would protect renters from a "very small minority of rogue landlords" who threaten eviction to silence tenants.

The bill would remove the right of landlords in England to evict tenants for no reason with only two months' notice, using the Section 21 process.

However, Section 21 notices are often used by landlords to officially end the one-year tenancies commonly used for student rentals.

Student tenants sign fixed-period agreements - known as assured shorthold tenancies (AST) - typically many months ahead of the new academic year. These will also be scrapped by the new bill.

'Inter-tenant friction'

Landlords say scrapping both Section 21 and ASTs would mean they cannot guarantee one year's group of students will have moved out of a property before the next group need to move in.

The National Residential Landlords Association said: "As it stands the bill will decimate the student housing market.

"Plans for open-ended tenancies mean landlords will have no certainty about properties to rent being available at the start of each academic year.

"They will be wholly reliant on sitting tenants giving notice to leave a property in good time to enable new students to move in."

Newcastle University Students' Union student advisor Ruth Gibson said the bill had "good intentions" but "does raise some concerns".

Students would need to remember to give notice and this was "not a practice that is always easy or valid", she added.

"On a fixed-term agreement no one tenant can give notice for the full house, however on a periodic [agreement] they can," she said.

"Therefore, there is a risk when there is inter-tenant friction or disputes that this can cause the tenancy to be abruptly ended."

Although the government's intention is to make no-fault evictions more difficult, the Section 21 system and AST already "provided some eviction protections" and there was concern reform of the alternative Section 8 method would "provide for much easier and swifter removal", Ms Gibson added.

"This looks very chaotic from a student perspective."