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01 September 2023
Issue: 8038 / Categories: Legal News , Landlord&tenant , Property , Housing
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NLJ this week: How will the Renters (Reform) Bill perform?

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No-fault eviction may be on its way out, but what replaces it? And is it an improvement? In this week’s NLJ, Daniel Bacon, housing solicitor at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, takes an in-depth look at the Renters (Reform) Bill.

Bacon delves into the practical possibilities and consequences of the Bill, exploring what it will allow landlords to do and not do, and how it will protect tenants. He finds both negative and positive features. For example, as Bacon writes, ‘with some landlords unable to rely on section 21 under the current system, the reform proposals will also improve those landlords’ routes to possession and may also inadvertently strengthen their ability to sidestep the risks of an arrears-based claim against a legally-aided defendant.

‘It is a peculiar feature of the Renters (Reform) Bill that the most diligent and punctilious landlords may be faced with greater costs, slower proceedings, and sometimes greater risks owing to the loss of section 21, while the least diligent and least punctilious—those who are in fact precluded from relying on section 21 in the first place—may find their routes to possession multiplied’.

Find the article in full here.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
The winners of the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2026 have now been announced, marking another outstanding celebration of excellence, innovation, and impact across the legal profession
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
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