You can feel it in the room: change has arrived. Suzanne Smith opened her HMO Summit talk with a tiny, brilliant metaphor: watch where the puck is going, not where it’s been. That image matters. The Renters’ Rights Bill isn’t just another piece of news to grumble about; it’s a new rulebook for how housing operates in the UK. Landlords who panic, dig in their heels or try to game every loophole will burn energy and capital. Those who accept the new landscape, adapt deliberately and focus on the things they can control, product quality, tenant experience, compliance, and data, will prosper.
Below is a practical, experience-based guide on how to succeed in a world of longer tenant protections, easier tenant challenges to rent, and tighter expectations on standards. This isn’t legal advice. It’s a sensible, operational roadmap for landlords who want to stay profitable and sleep at night.
The new reality: accept, adapt, act
The emotional first step is acceptance. Suzanne framed this as moving faster through the “grief cycle”,from denial and anger to exploration and acceptance,so landlords stop wasting energy on what can’t be changed. The Renters’ Rights Bill rewrites landlord/tenant dynamics: fixed-term certainty is reduced, tenants can challenge rents more easily early in tenancies, and enforcement/compliance scrutiny is intensifying. In practice that means three simple truths:
- Tenancies will be more fluid. Expect more movement, especially in student and transient markets.
- Rent disputes are likelier in the first months; landlords will need defensible, data-backed rent-setting.
- Compliance and standards will be scrutinised more,good documentation and proactive maintenance matter more than ever.
If you meet those realities head on, you stop reacting and start shaping outcomes.
The commercial mindset that wins
Suzanne’s central claim: property is not passive income. If you treat it like a cash machine and “wing it,” the new rules will expose you. Instead, adopt a product-driven mindset:
Focus on quality. High-spec HMOs and co-living that create a genuine, comfortable home command premium rents and discourage disputes. Tenants who love their place are far less likely to challenge rent or leave on short notice.
Think like an investor, not a victim. Collect and keep market evidence. If a tenant challenges rent in months 1–6, you should be able to point to recent lettings, comparable room rents in your portfolio, and market trends that justify your price. Good landlords use their own occupancy history as the strongest evidence.
Design tenant-fit, not templates. Know your target tenant (young professionals, students, low-income benefit tenants, supported-housing clients). The wrong tenant in the wrong house creates churn and cost. Match product, location and tenant screening accordingly.
Practical actions you can implement this month
Suzanne wasn’t about abstract theory,she offered specific, defensible steps that reduce risk and improve returns:
Get your paperwork and data in order. That means inventories with timestamped photos, documented rent-setting evidence, copies of all safety certificates and a version-controlled move-in/check-in pack. When disputes arrive, documentation wins.
Invest in tenant selection and onboarding. Robust referencing remains invaluable. Ask not only for affordability checks but for motives: is the applicant looking for a stable base or a transient placement? During onboarding, spend time face-to-face where feasible,that first interaction buys months of goodwill.
Set rents with empirical evidence. Use recent lettings in the same street/house and local market data to justify rents. If you can show contemporaneous lettings at similar rents, judges and adjudicators are far more likely to side with you.
Upgrade the product where it matters. Small design and durability choices (bed placement, airflow, good kitchen storage, robust doorstops, quality mattresses) reduce maintenance, complaints and voids. Suzanne’s message: invest thoughtfully up front and you cut lifetime costs.
Avoid “clever” legal work you don’t understand. Schemes like “licences to occupy” are tempting but risky. Suzanne,a solicitor by background,warns against trying to out-lawyer the system unless you are paying for expert legal counsel. The court process is expensive and slow; prevention is cheaper than litigation.
Plan for turnover with a data-driven approach. Expect more short-notice moves. Build a marketing and referral funnel that fires as soon as a notice is given. Incentivise current tenants to refer housemates. Keep a waiting list and treat vacancies as a predictable pipeline rather than an emergency.
People, outsourcing and profit
You will need to invest in operations. Outsourcing some functions,out-of-hours calls, digital maintenance triage, book-keeping automation,is often cheaper than your time. But outsource smartly: even if you hire a letting agent, keep oversight. Agents change people, processes degrade, and lapses show up as fines or compliance failures. Think of agents as partners, not absolutions from responsibility.
Remember the trade-offs: you outsource time; you pay for certainty. If you want to scale, hire one person ahead of need and build simple SOPs so your business doesn’t rely on heroics. If you want a lifestyle business, keep it local, choose tenant types that align with that goal, and be prepared to reinvest in the properties to maintain premium rents.
For student landlords in particular
Students are a special case under the new rules because tenancy durations and life changes can be less predictable. The blunt advice: if you rely on fixed-term predictability (calendar-year turnover), start planning contingency models now. Consider longer-convenant tenants (postgrads, young professionals) or upgrade properties to a standard where the product itself delivers stickiness.
Final thought: play where the puck is going
Suzanne’s puck metaphor is a business strategy in one line: don’t wrestle the past; invest in what the market wants next. That means better homes, better onboarding, clearer data, smarter outsourcing and a legal posture that’s compliant and conservative. The new rules will test the passive investor; they will reward the landlord who treats housing as a service business that happens to be built on bricks.
You can feel it in the room: change has arrived. Suzanne Smith opened her HMO Summit talk with a tiny, brilliant metaphor: watch where the puck is going, not where it’s been. That image matters. The Renters’ Rights Bill isn’t just another piece of news to grumble about; it’s a new rulebook for how housing operates in the UK. Landlords who panic, dig in their heels or try to game every loophole will burn energy and capital. Those who accept the new landscape, adapt deliberately and focus on the things they can control, product quality, tenant experience, compliance, and data, will prosper.
Below is a practical, experience-based guide on how to succeed in a world of longer tenant protections, easier tenant challenges to rent, and tighter expectations on standards. This isn’t legal advice. It’s a sensible, operational roadmap for landlords who want to stay profitable and sleep at night.
The new reality: accept, adapt, act
The emotional first step is acceptance. Suzanne framed this as moving faster through the “grief cycle”,from denial and anger to exploration and acceptance,so landlords stop wasting energy on what can’t be changed. The Renters’ Rights Bill rewrites landlord/tenant dynamics: fixed-term certainty is reduced, tenants can challenge rents more easily early in tenancies, and enforcement/compliance scrutiny is intensifying. In practice that means three simple truths:
- Tenancies will be more fluid. Expect more movement, especially in student and transient markets.
- Rent disputes are likelier in the first months; landlords will need defensible, data-backed rent-setting.
- Compliance and standards will be scrutinised more,good documentation and proactive maintenance matter more than ever.
If you meet those realities head on, you stop reacting and start shaping outcomes.
The commercial mindset that wins
Suzanne’s central claim: property is not passive income. If you treat it like a cash machine and “wing it,” the new rules will expose you. Instead, adopt a product-driven mindset:
Focus on quality. High-spec HMOs and co-living that create a genuine, comfortable home command premium rents and discourage disputes. Tenants who love their place are far less likely to challenge rent or leave on short notice.
Think like an investor, not a victim. Collect and keep market evidence. If a tenant challenges rent in months 1–6, you should be able to point to recent lettings, comparable room rents in your portfolio, and market trends that justify your price. Good landlords use their own occupancy history as the strongest evidence.
Design tenant-fit, not templates. Know your target tenant (young professionals, students, low-income benefit tenants, supported-housing clients). The wrong tenant in the wrong house creates churn and cost. Match product, location and tenant screening accordingly.
Practical actions you can implement this month
Suzanne wasn’t about abstract theory,she offered specific, defensible steps that reduce risk and improve returns:
Get your paperwork and data in order. That means inventories with timestamped photos, documented rent-setting evidence, copies of all safety certificates and a version-controlled move-in/check-in pack. When disputes arrive, documentation wins.
Invest in tenant selection and onboarding. Robust referencing remains invaluable. Ask not only for affordability checks but for motives: is the applicant looking for a stable base or a transient placement? During onboarding, spend time face-to-face where feasible,that first interaction buys months of goodwill.
Set rents with empirical evidence. Use recent lettings in the same street/house and local market data to justify rents. If you can show contemporaneous lettings at similar rents, judges and adjudicators are far more likely to side with you.
Upgrade the product where it matters. Small design and durability choices (bed placement, airflow, good kitchen storage, robust doorstops, quality mattresses) reduce maintenance, complaints and voids. Suzanne’s message: invest thoughtfully up front and you cut lifetime costs.
Avoid “clever” legal work you don’t understand. Schemes like “licences to occupy” are tempting but risky. Suzanne,a solicitor by background,warns against trying to out-lawyer the system unless you are paying for expert legal counsel. The court process is expensive and slow; prevention is cheaper than litigation.
Plan for turnover with a data-driven approach. Expect more short-notice moves. Build a marketing and referral funnel that fires as soon as a notice is given. Incentivise current tenants to refer housemates. Keep a waiting list and treat vacancies as a predictable pipeline rather than an emergency.
People, outsourcing and profit
You will need to invest in operations. Outsourcing some functions,out-of-hours calls, digital maintenance triage, book-keeping automation,is often cheaper than your time. But outsource smartly: even if you hire a letting agent, keep oversight. Agents change people, processes degrade, and lapses show up as fines or compliance failures. Think of agents as partners, not absolutions from responsibility.
Remember the trade-offs: you outsource time; you pay for certainty. If you want to scale, hire one person ahead of need and build simple SOPs so your business doesn’t rely on heroics. If you want a lifestyle business, keep it local, choose tenant types that align with that goal, and be prepared to reinvest in the properties to maintain premium rents.
For student landlords in particular
Students are a special case under the new rules because tenancy durations and life changes can be less predictable. The blunt advice: if you rely on fixed-term predictability (calendar-year turnover), start planning contingency models now. Consider longer-convenant tenants (postgrads, young professionals) or upgrade properties to a standard where the product itself delivers stickiness.
Final thought: play where the puck is going
Suzanne’s puck metaphor is a business strategy in one line: don’t wrestle the past; invest in what the market wants next. That means better homes, better onboarding, clearer data, smarter outsourcing and a legal posture that’s compliant and conservative. The new rules will test the passive investor; they will reward the landlord who treats housing as a service business that happens to be built on bricks.
