A whopping 69% of renters haven’t heard of the Renters’ Rights Bill and 75% don’t understand how it might impact them, a new survey has revealed.

Housing Hand, a UK rental services provider, quizzed 1,700 private tenants, the majority of whom are still in the dark about the legislative changes, despite media coverage and campaigning by tenant groups.

While 73% consider themselves financially literate, this contrasts with the 46% who don’t know how deposit protection schemes work and 63% who don’t know how long it takes to get their deposit back from these schemes. Another 34% of renters weren’t sure what a guarantor was before being asked to provide one.

Worryingly for landlords, 33% of renters report not knowing what would happen if they paid their rent late, while 58% wouldn’t know what to do if they found themselves unable to pay.

Housing Hand believes this creates a breeding ground for misunderstandings and potential issues.

Significant knowledge gaps

Graham Hayward, of Housing Hand, explains that these significant gaps in tenants’ knowledge pose a risk to harmonious tenant-landlord relationships.

“With the Renters’ Rights Bill set to deliver the biggest change to renting in a generation, the potential for knowledge gaps to cause issues grows exponentially,” he said.

“As such, we are calling on landlords and other accommodation providers to use our new research to help underpin more informed, smoother tenant relationships.”

Its focus groups believe landlords and agents should inform tenants of legislative changes, but questioned whether renters could trust them to give impartial information.

They would, however, trust information from the Government or local council, suggesting that landlords and agents could share links to such resources with tenants.

“There is a significant opportunity here for landlords and others in the sector to work with renters for the benefit of all those involved in the rental process,” Hayward concluded.

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