The practice of students securing accommodation in advance of their next academic year is to end despite attempts to amend the Renters Rights’ Bill to exempt HMO student tenants, Labour has revealed as it bulldozes its reforms through parliament.
Lords' housing minister Baroness Taylor made the comments last night as fellow peers debated some 125 amendments to the Bill, including three which sought to temper the banning of fixed-term tenancies within the student housing sector.
She said: "Students who take up accommodation should have the same rights as anybody else who is taking up accommodation. That is why we do not want to exempt from the benefits of the Renters’ Rights Bill students who want to rent in the private rented sector."
All the suggested student accommodation amendments were rejected by Taylor, saying she wanted to “discourage the practice” of agreeing tenancies far in advance and paying rent in advance too because “students are often pressured into signing contracts for the next academic year very early in the term, before they have had a chance to form stable friendships or assess a property’s proper condition and location”.
Some peers also sought to give landlords greater flexibility when managing the moving in and out of student tenants after the academic year ends in June. Under the current arrangements in the Bill, landlords worried about security of possession can serve notice at the beginning January and therefore have certainty that the tenants will move out.
One peer lodged an amendment that would extend this to nine months, therefore enabling landlords to gain certainty earlier, but this was rejected by Taylor.
“In many cases students are expected to commit to properties within just months of arriving at university, before having the opportunity to form lasting friendship groups or evaluate whether a property meets their needs in terms of condition or location,” she said.
“The purpose of this measure is to act as a strong disincentive to this practice, while striking the right balance.
“It avoids pushing students into signing tenancies before Christmas—when students are still settling in—but continues to allow flexibility for students who prefer to secure accommodation in advance of the summer period and does not interfere with typical exam periods.
“Extending this limit to nine months would undermine that balance and risk reinforcing the practice that this measure is intended to discourage; for example, tenants in a competitive market may be forced to search for tenancies starting in September during their January exam period.”
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