At the start of the week, I finished working with Dan on our monthly newsletter update to send out, and we know that the hottest topic this month is the Renters (Reform) Bill, so we looked to bring in some useful information on how this will impact not only the Residential Lettings industry but the entire property market as a whole. What's followed has been a week of reading up on documents, and articles, and some in depth webinars on the contents and progression of the Bill itself.
However, where it has led is to knowing about as much as anyone can know at this point, which isn't a whole lot. Since the bill was first announced, up to now, half of the original 12 points it contained have been dropped altogether, others have been tweaked already. On top of this, there's been pushback against some of the remaining points from landlords, property professionals, and tenant groups.
So whilst small, and not saying very much. This post is really to say don't panic, don't make too many assumptions at this point, and watch this space. If anyone tells you they know exactly where this is going, they're lying. Not even Michael Gove knows exactly what this Bill will look like by the time it's enacted. What we do know, is that it will arrive in some form, and it will be, as David Cox, the Legal Director at Rightmove, said this week: the most significant change to the industry in a decade, but time will be the only thing that tells us exactly what those changes will be.
Rather than bring more speculation to the table, we'll simply say that as we have concrete facts, we'll bring them to you, and react to them as a business, but for now, we'll watch what's happening closely and see which provisions stay, which are dropped, and what changes are made along the way.
What we know is that things will change, but as always, the industry will change along with it!
If anyone has questions about this, or just wants to talk it over, we're always here.
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