The Government should further consider its plans to mandate open-ended tenancies as a legal requirement, as set out in the Renters’ Rights Bill going through parliament.

So says Richard Dawson (main image, inset), Chief Information Officer of Rent Guarantor, who also warns that unless the tenancy reform plans are made more sensible, it will likely become more common for landlords to ask for tenants to provide a rent guarantor than it is now.

His comments come as housing minister Matthew Pennycook this week revealed that he intends to ban the taking of ‘Rent in advance’ of more than a month.

This is because, if tenancies become open-ended and tenants more difficult to remove from homes, following the banning of Section 21 evictions, one route to security for landlords would historically have been to demand rent in advance.

“I understand that this all designed to balance the power between landlord and tenant, but there’s no proof that this is needed - so far there hasn’t been a comprehensive survey of say 10,000 tenants and 10,000 landlords to ask them about this,” he says. Generation Rent this week completed such a survey, but only interviewed 400 tenants.

Dawson says that what the market needs is flexibility and transparency, rather than legislation that puts everyone in a straightjacket.

“Let’s be honest there – most landlords want long-term tenants and most renters want long-term tenancies, the suggested legislation would remove both parties ability to achieve that,” he says.

“I think the whole idea of removing landlords’ and tenants’ ability to agree something privately is the wrong approach here.

Transparency

“Transparency is the core thing that everyone should be looking for – if a landlord wants to go away for a set period and rent the property out, then the advert should say that so that the tenant can make an informed choice.

“Why can’t Rightmove have a filter by length of tenancy, allowing tenants to search for properties that suit their needs as well as the landlords’ needs?

“When considering what’s going to happen when the bill becomes law, all parties should note that - all landlords have a need to protect their investments and reduce risk regarding rent arrears, so they may consider that they no longer have any long-term security and will therefore, given there a few other options, insist all tenants have a guarantor whether it’s a product like ours, or a traditional guarantor in the form of a friend or a family member.”

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