I rented 10 flats in 16 years: Here’s why the Renters’ Rights Act will hit tenants within the pocket says HELEN CRANE

Tomorrow is a huge day for anyone with a foot in the rental market, whether a tenant or landlord.

After years of wrangling under multiple governments, tenants are being handed a raft of new protections under the Renters’ Rights Act.

The changes are not good news for landlords. They will find it harder to evict tenants, won’t be able to tie them into fixed terms and won’t be able to automatically refuse renters with children or pets. If they break the rules, they can be fined up to £25,000.

‘Section 21’ or ‘no fault’ evictions will be axed, meaning that if a landlord wants their tenants to leave they will now have to prove an acceptable reason, such as wanting to sell the property, tenants being in serious rent arrears, or damaging the home.

This was first mooted under Liz Truss’s brief premiership back in 2022 – and in my opinion, that’s one thing she did get right.

I rented for 16 years and lived in 10 properties, and these changes would have saved me thousands.

Not least two years ago, when our landlord effectively forced my partner and I to lock into a new nine-month contract (with a healthy rent rise), when we were already in the early stages of buying our first home.

Sweeping changes: The Renters’ Rights Bill has big implications for landlords and tenants

We’d asked to go on to a rolling one, as is the usual practice when the initial one-year fixed term ends.

This would mean we could give two months’ notice and leave at any time, allowing us the flexibility we needed to navigate the home buying process – but the landlord wouldn’t agree.

Faced with the alternative of being evicted, we had no choice but to sign.

When our purchase went through quicker than planned, we ended up paying three months of rent to our landlord for a flat we were no longer living in, alongside our mortgage – a huge financial blow at an already straitened time.

I think we were the only buyers in Britain actively trying to slow our conveyancer down.

That couldn’t happen today. All contracts will now be rolling, with tenants able to move out with two months’ notice and landlords giving four if they want the tenants to leave.

Crucially, this applies to existing tenancies. Even if someone signed up to a one-year term last week, that is now out of the window.

I am also delighted that bidding wars for rented homes, a huge bugbear of mine, will be banned.

A memory that has stuck with me is awkwardly shuffling around a cramped south London flat alongside five or six equally unimpressed potential tenants.

The carpet was filthy, every room was daubed with yellow paint that was flaking off the walls, and there was an overpowering stench of dog.

At the end, the agent enthusiastically told us to email our ‘best bid’ within an hour, or risk missing out on this fantastic home.

You couldn’t have paid me to take it, but I bet someone in that group would have been desperate enough.

Fair game to get into a bidding war when you’re buying a house, a long-term investment where you’ll (hopefully) one day make your money back.

But when a landlord asks renters to make a best bid, they are simply exploiting their fear of not finding a property to convince them to throw away more money each month.

Why not just walk away? When you’ve been given two months’ notice and the clock is ticking to find a place to live, you’d be surprised what you might agree to.

Landlords will now have to advertise properties at the price tenants will actually pay and cannot accept more.

This is brilliant for transparency, but I worry that the advertised rent will simply now be higher.

Tenants will still pay the price

I said these changes would have saved me thousands, which is true – but perhaps only in the short term.

Whenever costs rise for landlords, it’s likely tenants will end up paying the price.

A massive 42 per cent of landlords say they are unlikely or very unlikely to continue letting their properties as a result of the Renters’ Rights Act, according to auction house Allsop.

With fewer homes for tenants, competition for the remaining ones will increase and landlords will be able to charge more.

Some 70 per cent said they were already raising rents because of the cost of complying with the new rules.

Some people do rent by choice – something the pension fund owners of shiny and eye-wateringly expensive ‘build to rent’ flats popping up across the country are always keen to tell us.

But let’s be honest – if you put a 10 per cent deposit in their lap, most renters would jump at the chance to own their own home.

The reason for that is security – and the Renters’ Rights Act will give people stuck in the rental trap more of it.

But will it save them any money in the long term? Sadly, I don’t think so.