A WEALTHY LIFE PODCAST

Take The Wealthy Life Scorecard: https://bit.ly/AWL-Scorecard

The Renters’ Rights Act was meant to help tenants. Has it?

In this episode, Julie Ford joins me again, and this time we look at the Act from the tenant’s side. Landlords can no longer take rent upfront, so the tenant on a zero-hours contract, or the student with no UK credit history who might once have paid 12 months in advance, now struggles to get housed at all. Julie’s worry is where those people go next. Social housing can’t take them, which leaves the landlords who don’t register, don’t keep up with the certificates and don’t care what the law says.

We go through what has changed and what it’s doing to tenants. Section 21 has gone, so landlords with a problem tenant are selling up instead. Rent can now only go up once a year, so landlords who used to leave a good tenant’s rent alone for three or four years are putting it up every year. And I explain why I’d now think twice about buying a property with a tenant already in it, when I could inherit the last landlord’s paperwork mistakes. Then we get to the new national landlord database, which opens in the West Midlands on 15 December 2026 at £65 a year per property. Julie tested an early version. Neither of us can see what it gives landlords or tenants, and nobody has yet said what details tenants will be able to see.

Julie counts more than 170 Acts of Parliament and over 400 regulations already governing the private rented sector, and says the gap is enforcement. She’d also like landlords to be called private housing providers. So here’s my ask. If you’re a landlord or a tenant with a good news story, put it in the comments starting with “Good news”, and I’ll read every one.

Julie Ford has more than 30 years in the private rented sector, across lettings, property management, housing law and training, including six years as a housing and homelessness law specialist at Citizens Advice. She founded the Lettings Advice Service, which gives agents and landlords practical advice on compliance, rent arrears and reform, and she sits on Zoopla’s lettings advisory board. She also rents privately herself.

EXPECT TO LEARN: – Why the ban on rent upfront is shutting out tenants with irregular income or no UK credit history – How tenants that good landlords can’t take on could end up with rogue landlords – What Section 21 was for, and why landlords are now selling instead – Why the protection against retaliatory eviction relied on stretched councils – How one conversation about a rent rise kept three of my tenants, and why the once-a-year rule may push rents up every year – Why buying a property with a tenant in place now means taking on the last landlord’s liability – What the national landlord database will cost, who has to register, and what tenants might see – Why Julie says the sector is under-enforced rather than under-regulated – Why Julie wants landlords called private housing providers

TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Trailer 00:59 The unintended consequences for tenants 01:50 Why landlords can’t take a chance on tenants now 03:10 Who houses the tenants nobody will take? 05:29 How the Act got through Parliament 06:52 No more rent upfront 08:02 What Section 21 was for 10:03 Landlords selling up instead 12:19 Retaliatory evictions and stretched councils 13:41 Do policymakers understand landlords and tenants? 15:27 Rent rises once a year 18:46 Three tenants, three answers to a rent rise 20:52 Low rents and poor conditions 23:42 Buying a property with a tenant in place 25:46 Retrospective rules, from tenancies to leases 27:12 Can it be fixed? Under-regulated or under-enforced 28:42 The national landlord database 31:06 Who pays for the database? 33:47 What tenants could see on the database 35:38 Companies, joint owners and home addresses 37:48 Why do some people want private landlords gone? 39:33 Choice, and the case for renting 41:45 Pulling the consequences together 43:25 Who private landlords actually are 45:37 How landlords and tenants can meet in the middle 46:56 Calling landlords private housing providers 47:55 Why good news stories don’t get heard 53:40 Share your good news story

FOLLOW THE GUEST JULIE FORD: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-ford-ccpm-35782448/ Substack: https://juliefordtv.substack.com/

FOLLOW THE HOST VICKI WUSCHE: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickiwusche/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VickiWusche Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vicki_wusche/ Take The Wealthy Life Scorecard: https://bit.ly/AWL-Scorecard

LISTEN TO A WEALTHY LIFE: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/VickiWusche Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/a-wealthy-life/id1617293196 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/13lVRTAioD5mR4XUiylAk8

#RentersRightsAct #Landlords #Tenants #PRSDatabase #AWealthyLife