Blog written by David Smith Solicitor of Spector Constant & Williams

I recently posted about when the Renters' Rights Bill might get Royal Assent. But actually the more relevant question for most people is when it will come into effect.

The two dates are not the same, although tenant groups have said they should be, at least in regard to getting rid of s21. Royal Assent is the ceremonial process of the King actually singing a Bill into law and making it an Act. However, in modern times few Bills (unless they are short, uncomplicated, or very urgent) take effect immediately on Royal Assent and they contain provisions requiring the relevant minister to make regulations to implement the Bill in whole or in part at some later date. This gives Government time to make further secondary legislation to set out details of Acts and to provide guidance as well as to allow industry to adapt and prepare. At times the gaps between Royal Assent and implementation can be very long, especially if the government changes after an Act gets Royal Assent.

In common with this, the RRB, unless it is adjusted in the final back and forth in the Commons, leaves implementation to one or more later dates to be decided. There is also the possibility of different implementation dates for different landlords and there have been suggestions that social landlords will get a little more time, although that is in my view a pretty unwise thing to do as it create a great deal of confusion, especially among care providers who are often not social landlords but behave a lot like them.

So the first question is when will the RRB get its Royal Assent and move from being a Bill, which could still be changed or even abandoned (no it won't be!) to a finalised Act of Parliament. I have already written about this a bit. Parliament is now in recess for the summer (this does not mean that they are on holiday although I am sure many MPs and Peers will try to have a holiday in this time), so no Parliamentary business can occur and the country is governed largely by the executive using their powers under the Royal Prerogative. Parliament returns to Westminster on 1 September. The government has said that the consideration by the Commons of Lords amendments (commonly called Ping Pong) will start on 8 September, which is a Monday. But Parliament rises again for conference recess just over one week later on 16 September, the following Monday. So there is not a lot of time to deal with the amendment process. However, Parliamentary Ping Pong is usually pretty brief, especially when the government has a large Commons majority and can simply vote down all Lords amendments. Coupled with this being a manifesto commitment by the Labour government this means that the ability of the Lords to play hardball and draw out the process is pretty limited. Personally, as I have said several times I expect that all Lords amendments that were not the government's own ones will be kicked out. So I would expect Royal Assent to be sorted before conference season.

Getting things done before conference season will allow the government to go into conference season telling its activists at conference that it has passed the RRB and met a campaign promise. This matters to the government. They have been criticised (not entirely fairly) for slow delivery and activists who are often young and renting are pressing them to get the RRB over the line. So being able to present the Bill as being done at conference is important.

Government has been unusually cagey about their plans for implementation. I suspect that this is for the same reasons as them wanting to get it done before conference. Given that some tenant groups want s21 got rid of immediately on Royal Assent (which to be fair is one way of interpreting the promise the government made in its manifesto), the government sets itself up for trouble if it tells people now that there will be a gap of any significance between Assent and implementation. If you are the government it is far easier to manage that if you get the Bill done place so you can talk it up and push out the less welcome delay until implementation quietly later. So I would anticipate implementation either being parked until after conference or possibly rolled out as part of a big speech from the Secretary of State or the Housing Minister.

So to answer the question I originally asked, what is the implementation date? My big fear is that ministers get a hard time at conference and decide that the best way to mollify their supporters is to cut the implementation time down. The Housing Minister originally suggested just two months. He then confirmed in response to industry letters that he would give more than this but has not committed to anything. One option would be to cut the time down to around three months and bring it in just before the end of the year, but that would be very unreasonable given that a number of things have to be done within a month of implementation.

I still expect that the government will give the industry the six months it has been asking for. That would essentially take things to next April which is a traditional time to bring in legislation. 6 April and 6 October have been used for some time now. That would also allow the government to paint the date as being something that was dictated by convention rather than them caving to vested landlord interests. It would also give time for the strong publicity campaign the government has promised to reach out.

So if it was to be next April then what will come in then? do not see Awaab's law or the Decent Homes Standard being ready for then, as they are in ongoing consultations. I do not see how redress can be ready either as the government has yet to make clear how many redress schemes there will be, let alone who will be filling that role.

It is clear that the government will get rid of s21 on the implementation date, at least for the private sector, but probably for the social sector too. That inevitably means getting rid of ASTs and fixed term tenancies and changing the s8 grounds as well to make it all work. I see no reason not to make all the changes on pets, discrimination, and written tenancy agreements at the same time as much of the underlying guidance around that is broadly ready to go. I would assume that the new rent increase process will come into effect at the same time too. I do not know what the current status of the PRS database is and I would not expect it to be ready by April but there is value in getting on with it to give landlords time to sign up and also to help build a communication channel to make sure as many of them as possible are aware of exactly what is happening.

So, to summarise, my bet is that s21 and most of the other associated items will be in force from 6 April 2026 with the database, redress, Awaab's law and Decent Homes to come later.