The Renters’ Right Act Has Arrived: What Agricultural and Rural Landlords Must Do Now
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The Renters’ Right Act marks the most significant overhaul of residential tenancy law in 40 years, and agricultural landlords face fast‑approaching deadlines and new compliance risks that cannot be ignored.
After months of parliamentary wrangling, the much-trumpeted Renters’ Right Act comes into effect next week. Much has been written about its impact on the residential lettings market, but there are implications too for residential tenancies in the agricultural sector. The Act represents the biggest change to residential tenancies for 40 years.
As from 1st May, assured shorthold tenancies are abolished, as are Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions. Alongside these headline measures come requirements for landlord registration, prevention of rental bidding, and a structured rent review process – with real penalties for non-compliance, including rent repayment orders.
This really isn’t something that landlords can ignore.
There are a number of areas where the Act will affect tenancies in the farming world. Perhaps the most urgent is that by 1st June – just a month away – every tenant needs to have been provided with a written statement of tenancy and a tenancy information sheet. It is fair to say that a greater proportion of agricultural tenancies may have been conducted on a more informal basis in the past, so there are probably a disproportionate number of rural landlords who will need to act to meet this deadline.
The farming world does, of course, also feature the provision of accommodation as part of an agricultural worker’s overall package – in other words a tenancy which is ‘tied’ to a particular employment.
There have been some concerns that the new Act would make it more difficult for agricultural landlords to secure possession of such homes when an employment came to an end, but this is not the case. If possession of a property is required to accommodate a new employee, this is an allowable reason to issue a Section 8 eviction notice.
The same applies to service tenancies, where non-agricultural workers such as housekeepers or gamekeepers have tenanted accommodation linked to their employment.
There will also be tenancies under the Agricultural Holding Act (1986 and 1995), where tenant farmers have sub-let properties provided to them under a farm business tenancy, usually to one of their own employees. Where such a farm business tenancy comes to and end, the property owner can take possession of such properties. What’s more, they can do this with just two months’ notice, not the standard four months which the Act generally requires.
As long as agricultural landlords comply with the requirements of the new Act (in terms of such things as providing a statement of tenancy), they should still be able to take back possession of their properties when they have justifiable grounds to do so.
Simon Evans is agricultural consultant at Arnolds Keys – Irelands Agricultural.
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