Q. I understand that section 21 is no longer available – what are the new rules?

A. At the moment section 21 IS available. All that has happened is that the government has announced that it is considering removing the right to use section 21 in due course.

Any change though is not likely to happen for some time as they will need to:

• Publish a consultation document,
• Consider the consultation document,
• Make proposals based on the consultation,
• Draft the legislation, and
• Get it through Parliament.

So far, they have done none of these things! However, I understand that the consultation paper is due out fairly soon. After that it depends. There is after all this thing called ‘Brexit’ which is taking up a fair amount of government time.
If this proposal does go ahead, we are probably looking at 2020-21 at the earliest.

Q. I have rented my property out to tenants on a 12 month fixed term.  But I am worried that government has said that they are going to remove the right to use section 21.  

I will need my property myself after the end of the fixed term as it is my retirement home and I will be retiring then. Will this change affect my ability to get my property back?