As a landlord you may have heard of the Renters Reform Bill, so you may be wondering how that will effect you. Well, the bill will have no effect in Northern Ireland as housing is devolved, at least at the moment. As with many laws in GB, they usually make their way to us eventually, in some shape of form, so we could see elements of it in the future. The main points of the bill are as follows:

• Landlords won't be able to evict tenants for no reason (e.g. arrears, breaches or if they want to live in the house or sell it). It is possible that this may breach Protocol 1, Article 1: Protection of property, but only time and possibly legal action will decide this. 
• In addition to all the local regsiters and licences, landlords will be forced onto a antional regsiter which may cost them more money.
• Make it illegal to refuse a rental property to someone with children or on benefits (this could lead to higher charges from mortgage lenders and insurers).

Landlord groups are concerned that the court system for legally evicting tenants is too slow, and whilst the government have talked about new "housing" courts and other measures, without additional funding it will not happen. 

The prospect of the bill being made law, which has been hailed by groups like Shelter as a step forward, is one of the reasons why many landlords have and are selling up. This has lead to a shortage of rental homes, and driven prices up. So tenants can thank groups like Shelter for making rents higher. 

Key One Property offer landlords TENANT FIND, LET ONLY & LET+MANAGE in the Greater Belfast area for low fees.