New Year, New Start, New Law
From 5th January 2026 to 30 April 2026 landlords, letting agents, law firms, local authorities, government departments, suppliers and PropTech firms across England will have 16 weeks and 4 days to ensure full operational, legal, and procedural readiness for the Renters’ Rights Act.
The Act represents one of the most significant reforms to the private rented sector in a generation and it will reshape the relationship between landlords, agents, tenants, and local authorities, introducing enhanced enforcement powers, stricter compliance expectations, and far greater scrutiny of day-to-day management practices.
Time needed to get Ducks in a Row for the Renters’ Rights Act
Kristjan Byfield recently wrote a Linkedin post on the importance of the government allowing time for the lettings industry to prepare for the changes that the #rentersrightsact will bring. Kristjan is right and it’s not just lettings and property management this will affect.
The impact assessment I put together last year (visual learner) illustrates just how far reaching the Act will be. It's seismic.
Let’s start with landlords and letting agents / PMs - they will have to amend and update processes and systems related to pre, during and post tenancy.
Tenants will need to educate themselves or be signposted to these changes.
Legal firms, solicitors, barristers and the Law Commission of England and Wales will become the lynch pins for legal paperwork, advice, court claims (at some point) navigating complex areas of the Act and a comfort blanket of sorts.
Preparedness - Staying Focused and Hopeful in 2021
Resilience - Relentless - Change - Optimism - Challenging - Adaptable - Unprecedented - Testing - Unexpected - Grateful - Unpredictable - Overwhelming - Weird - Surreal - Tumultuous - Sad - Revealing
Looking back at 2020 so may feelings and emotions come to the fore, some of the words describing how we felt and what we expereinced can be used to sum up a year that change everything and everyone.
However, looking back can only serve the purpose of ensuring we are able to move forward in a different way to the way we lived before the Pandemic, before we knew what Covid-19 actually meant.
As the New Year approaches people will start to think about resolutions and change but 2021 is the year of Hope. So what’s the best way to approach 2021.
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Understand and Reflect on what we have been through. We should never forget the challenges and obstacles that were beyond our control and yet we did our utmost to overcome them.
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Plan Plan Plan for a very different future. Life is not nor it ever will be the same, hence the Great Reset - Version 4.0 of the next phase of our lives.
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Be Optimistic The negativity has overtaken us all, Look forward to something fresh and new, with a twist.