The Chair, Cllr. Nick Brown welcomed Officers and the portfolio holder, Cllr. Susan Findlay to the meeting.

Officers provided an overview of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, its impact on the Council, local landlords, tenants and how it will be implemented.

When discussing the impacts on the Council, the following key points were made:

·         Increased casework and investigations

·         Enforce compliance through civil penalties

·         Respond to complaints including at tribunal level

·         Gather and report statutory data returns (which are increasing from 25 fields to 57)

·         Administer the national Private Rented Sector (PRS) database locally

·         Training needs for officers

·         Changes to business systems and policy reviews

Impacts on landlords are:

·         More formal tenancy and documentation requirements

·         Clear reasons for gaining possession

·         Consistent lettings and rent rise practice across the sector

·         Mandatory registration on national database

·         Exposure to civil penalties

·         Changes to possession and letting practices

Impacts on tenants are:

·         Greater security of tenure

·         Flexibility to give notice at any time

·         Ability to request pets

·         Challenge affordability and rent rises above market value

·         Fair lettings practices

·         Greater confidence in reporting housing conditions and raising concerns about poor landlord or property practice.

Members were updated on next steps that officers need to take to ensure the new regulations are a success, including updating systems, identifying private rented properties of which there is over 5,400 in the District. Members considered the finance model and were informed that it would be partly self-funded, and through the PRS database. Civil penalties were not intended to be the main funding model.  

Members considered the risks which included:

·         Initial uncertainty and misunderstanding in the landlord community

·         High case volumes (though this is not evident yet)

·         Debt recovery challenges

It was noted positively that Blaby District did not have the same issues with private sector landlords as larger cities did. Members were informed of the Landlord Forum being hosted by the Council on 23 June to initiate early discussions with local landlords.

Scrutiny Members were keen to consider performance data and look forward to being kept updated on when data is provided.

Members questioned officers on whether they had seen an increase of evictions before the Act came into force. Officers positively responded that they had seen no such increase, instead there were more procedural queries and queries on how to end a tenancy.

Scrutiny were informed of a cabinet report being prepared for consideration on 30 June, which would request extra resource and describe the team structure.

The Chair, Cllr. Nick Brown thanked the Officers for providing a comprehensive overview of the new reforms.