Spring has sprung - and we're still waiting for the Renters' Reform Bill White Paper. Will a new redress pilot push the agenda forwards?
Samuel Beckett’s classic play, “Waiting for Godot”, tells the story of two characters waiting for the eponymous person in the title, who never turns up. This is a bit like waiting for the Renters' Reform Bill White Paper which we've been promised and has yet to materialise - will it ever arrive?
Waiting for the Renters' Reform Bill
It's been remarkably almost three years since the government promised to legislate for one of the pillars of the reforms, namely court reform for the eviction process and the scrapping of Section 21.
Since then, there was the General Election of 2019, Brexit implemented, the pandemic and now we are tentatively watching the tragic war in Ukraine.
Yes, the government has had a lot on its plate. However, the dragging of their heels over what could be the biggest shakeup in the rental market for twenty years is not ideal, with uncertainty the worst friend to any market and not conducive to planning or confidence.
To be fair, the government has said that the purpose of doing a White Paper is to iron out all the unforeseen consequences and have a bill which is oven-ready and most likely to pass quickly and unopposed through the Parliamentary process. It is in their mind, a play of two acts.
The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, have therefore engaged the sector in a series of roundtable events, to which I was invited to, and the civil servants have also spoken to various people individually, on the different elements of the proposed agenda to garner their expert views.
They have cogitated, deliberated, and digested, to steal the phrase made famous by Lloyd Grossman in the original Master Chef, so surely the paper will be hot off the press soon.
They did however say it would be published in spring and the clocks have just gone back, so by their reckoning, they are still on schedule.
I don't want to jump the gun in being over critical of the process, but it is frustrating as we have to second guess the reforms at the moment.
Changing the property market for the better
We, however, are not coming back day after day to wait by the tree in springtime anticipation, as a few more leaves appear on it, or watching the character Lucky’s dancing, whilst spouting gibberish as happens in Beckett’s play!
Yes, the proposals when they appear could make April Fools of us all. However, this is also an opportunity to change the market for the better and ensure there are no hidden Easter eggs in the paper that may well be published around this holiday period. We cannot rest on our laurels, and we have not.
Instead, the influential group The Lettings Industry Council, gas sent up a series of working groups to look at the individual areas of reform anticipated in the paper.
Needless to say, I am on the one looking at redress. The idea is to produce a report, outlining how the industry sees the reforms being implemented and delivered.
Landlord redress waits for no-one
We at The Property Redress Scheme have also been instrumental in a major new initiative that potentially could be a game changer. Along with the National Residential Landlord Association (NRLA), we have just launched a pilot for landlord redress amongst their members.
This will of course be on a voluntary basis, funded by the NRLA so free to their members, and the data gathered from the trial will be analysed and fed back to the government.
We've also been joined in the pilot by TDS, whose experience in the deposit world will be really valuable.
I am really pleased to say that the initiative has been embraced by NRLA members and the pilot does look like it will be oversubscribed, with the free offer closing at the end of March.
It's not always easy to be a guinea pig. However, the value of this work cannot be underestimated in ensuring we get any potential mandatory scheme right.
Just like the pioneering work we did during lockdown and the eviction ban in setting up a dedicated mediation service - and the lessons learned by Landlord Action during the extension of notice periods will be invaluable in looking at how the possession process can be reformed - the pilot will really test how redress for landlords and tenants becomes reality.
Making landlord redress fit for purpose
In my view, work will also need to be done on integrating the new scheme with the existing agent schemes and see how it operates where a landlord uses an agent to some degree or not.
The legal obligations of landlords and agents differ, especially when it comes to repairs. Whilst tenants most often deal exclusively with agents in fully-managed tenancies, the let-only or rent collection model means that the pathway for who deals with what complaints will need to be ironed out.
Our model will also rely very heavily on early intervention and resolution, which is something we learned for our agent scheme at the PRS and, whilst there will be need to award compensation, the objective will be to ensure things are put right where possible.
This means the service will involve a lot of initial contact to give the landlord the chance to resolve the matter quickly. This will benefit them as well as their tenants and will stop problems before they go too far.
The aim will always be to resolve matters between the parties rather than pass down judgement and dish out sanctions.
How the property sector can take control of rental reform
So, we are not in a waiting game but rather Carpe Diem. Helping to take control of the sector's own destiny in a collaborative and engaging way will mean the redress reforms are accepted and embraced by all sides.
This is not a play where nothing happens and we are passive actors. We have the chance to write the script and to set the scene.
When Godot finally appears, it won’t be a case of “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful!” (Estragon to Vladimir Act 1 Waiting for Godot 1955) but the final act in building a rental market fit for the future.
