Renters’ Rights Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 18

On 8 September 2025, MPs voted on whether to reject Lords Amendment 18 to the Renters' Rights Bill, which would have reduced from 12 months to 6 months the period during which a landlord who evicts a tenant on grounds of selling the property is barred from re-letting it. The motion to disagree with the Lords passed by 402 votes to 97, meaning the 12-month restricted period remains in the Bill. The vote determines how strong a deterrent exists against landlords misusing the "selling up" ground for possession to remove tenants and then re-let at a higher rent. Under the 12-month period that the Commons has now confirmed, a landlord who evicts to sell cannot re-let the property for a full year; breaching that restriction carries financial penalties. The shorter six-month period preferred by the Lords would, supporters of the government position argued, make it considerably easier for landlords, particularly those with large portfolios, to exploit the possession ground as a pretext for removing tenants without ever completing a sale. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. Labour MPs voted 325 to 0 in favour of rejecting the Lords amendment. Liberal Democrats voted 62 to 0 in the same direction, as did the Democratic Unionist Party (4 to 0), the Greens (3 to 0), and smaller groupings. Conservatives voted 89 to 0 against the government motion, joined by all 7 Reform UK MPs who voted and 2 independents. The result sits within a broader sequence of Lords amendment disagreements on the same day, in which the government successfully rejected changes to several other provisions of the Bill.