The history of rent control in England and Wales is a part of English land law concerning the development of rent regulation in England and Wales. Controlling the prices that landlords could make their tenants pay formed the main element of rent regulation, and was in place from 1915 until its abolition (excluding some council houses) by the Housing Act 1988.
There have been significant changes in attitudes and legislation toward the right to housing in mainland Britain. Concepts, such as rent control, 'security of tenure', statutory tenancy, regulated tenancy, fair rent, rent officer, Rent Officer Service and assured tenancy were introduced in the twentieth century, and have developed in the years since. It concerns the intervention of public law rights in private relations between landlord and tenant, and was put in place to counteract the inequality of bargaining power between landlords and tenants.
1915 to 1939
Rent control and security of tenure were first introduced on 23 December 1915 with the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (War Restrictions) Act 1915 (5 & 6 Geo. 5. c. 97) and were intended to be temporary measures (due to expire six months after the end of the First World War) to deal with excessive increases in rents caused by the wartime housing shortage due to the cessation of building.
The act attempted to remedy this evil by restricting the right of landlords to eject their tenants and prevented them from raising the rent except for limited purposes. At the same time, in fairness to the landlords, mortgagees of houses controlled by the act were prevented from increasing the rate of interest and restricted in their rights to enforce the security. This was the first comprehensive European enactment controlling rent; since then many other acts have been passed in Great Britain, and of course, in other European countries.
Before the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (War Restrictions) Act 1915, the relationship between landlord and tenant had been purely contractual; at the expiration or termination of the contract, the landlord could recover possession.
Scope of control The new form of control was relatively simple and inflexible. The act applied to separate dwellings with rateable values or standard rents not exceeding £35 in London, £30 in Scotland and £26 elsewhere.
Specifically excluded were: dwellings let with land other than a garden or let with other premises; lettings at a rent of less than two-thirds the rateable value; lettings where the rent included payment for board, attendance or furniture.
Standard rent The controlled rent was known as the standard rent. It was the rent of a letting on 3 August 1914; or, where there was no letting on that date, the rent the dwelling had last been let for before that date; or, in the case of a first letting after 3 August 1914, the rent at which it was first let.
Security of tenure Under the provisions of the act, a tenant who paid the rent and observed other conditions of the tenancy, could only be evicted if the landlord could satisfy the courts on certain grounds specified in the act.
These were: that the tenant had committed waste or caused nuisance or annoyance to neighbours; or, that the premises were reasonably required by the landlord for his own occupation, or that of an employee.
In addition, the courts could grant possession on any other ground it considered satisfactory.
Premiums After 25 November 1915, premiums were not allowed to be paid by a tenant on the grant, renewal or continuance of any tenancy. Any amount paid was recoverable unless it was made payable by an agreement entered into before 4 August 1914. (Leases for 21 years or more were later excluded by the Courts (Emergency Powers) Act 1917).
Rates The Statement of Rates Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 31) required any owner in England and Wales who received rent that included rates to show the amount in the rent book. The equivalent Scottish act was the House-Letting and Rating (Scotland) Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5. c. 8).
Further extensions and amendments to the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (War Restrictions) Act 1915 were made the Courts (Emergency Powers) Act 1917 (7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 25), the Increase of Rent, &c. (Amendment) Act 1918 (8 & 9 Geo. 5. c. 7), the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 7) and the Increase of Rent, &c. (Amendment) Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 90). Control was exempted from houses built alter 2 April 1919 or in process of construction at that date.
Rent control and security of tenure hardly proved to be such temporary measures as had been originally intended.
Full control 1920 to 1923 Following the report of the Salisbury Committee into the continuing deterioration in the housing supply, the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5. c. 17) was passed, which consolidated and amended the earlier legislation. Most of the provisions were intended to be for a period of three years but they were successively extended and amended.
Any remaining provisions were repealed and consolidated by the Rent Act 1968 and in Scotland by the Rent (Scotland) Act 1971. The 1920 act is still the foundation of the modern law; most concepts of the Rent Acts are derived from it. It is suggested as a first source of reference for any original concepts which are not included in this brief summary.
Scope of control The standard rent and rateable value limits were increased to £105 in London, £90 in Scotland and £78 elsewhere, and so applied to the great majority of let houses in the country. The concept of "statutory tenant" was introduced in this act. Premises used for business, trade or professional purposes, or for the public service were brought within the act for one year (with slightly different percentage increases to those outlined below for dwellings). New dwellings continued to be excluded from control.
The Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act 1920 did not apply to houses erected, or in the course of erection, on 2 April 1919, nor to those that at that date or later were being reconstructed into two or more separate and self-contained flats or tenements.
A measure of control was introduced for the first time to a furnished letting of a dwelling covered by the act. This control related to abnormal or excessive profits. In the latter case, the landlord was liable to a fine of up to £100.
Standard rent The Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act 1920 allowed increases in rent of up to 40% and in mortgage interest of 1% (up to a maximum of six and one half per cent). The 40% was made up of two elements. An increase of 15% was allowed, to compensate the landlord for the fall in the value of money during the Great War. A further increase in rent of 25% was allowed to cover expenditure on repairs where the landlord did the repairs. This latter increase could not be levied on tenants of unfit dwellings or dwellings in disrepair. In fact, it could be levied but the tenant (or the sanitary authority) could go to court to have it suspended until the repairs had been carried out.
Increases were also permitted, as a percentage of the relevant expenditure, following improvement or structural alteration. A tenant of a furnished dwelling was able to go to a county court (in Scotland a sheriff court) for an order to freeze the rent at a specified level and for repayment of any rent already paid in excess of that level.
Premiums The act now made it a penal offence, liable to a fine of £100, to require a premium, but reduced the length of excluded tenancies from 21 years or more to 14 years or more.
Security of tenure Distress (in Scotland "diligence") could only be levied with consent of the court. Possession could be recovered if the court saw fit on a certain number of grounds, which were widened. The court lost its powers to grant possession on some unspecified but less satisfactory grounds.
Succession There was a right of succession by the tenant's widow if she was residing with him at his death or a member of the tenant's family who had been residing with the tenant at the time of his death. A requirement for six months' residence except for a widow was introduced by the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions (Amendment) Act 1933.
Gradual decontrol 1923 to 1933 Following the report of the Onslow Committee, the (13 & 14 Geo. 5. c. 32) became the first measure to reverse the machinery of control.
Scope of decontrol Premises came out of protection when tenants died or moved away. Sitting tenants remained controlled. The acts ceased to apply to premises for which a lease or tenancy of not less than two years' duration was granted to a sitting tenant. It extended the grounds for recovery of possession.
Furnished tenancies As has been said earlier, the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (War Restrictions) Act 1915 had disapplied the act where board, attendance, or furniture was provided. The Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Act 1923 now quantified the amount of attendance or provided furniture so that only substantial provision in rental terms would take the letting out of control. In other words, the value of attendance (personal services provided to the tenant) or the value of the furniture had to form a substantial part of the rental value.
Subsequent legislation made minor amendments to previous enactments, and the Expiring Laws Continuance Acts 1927-1932 ensured continuity of the Rent Acts until 1933.
Gradual decontrol 1933 The recommendations of the Marley Committee in 1931 were implemented in the (23 & 24 Geo. 5. c. 32).
They had reported that the gradual decontrol inaugurated by the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Act 1923 had worked satisfactorily with regard to the medium-sized houses, but too slowly to the largest and too quickly to the smallest. So the 1933 act divided the dwellings the acts applied to into three categories.
Scope of decontrol The larger houses became decontrolled where both the annual recoverable rent and the rateable value exceeded £45 in London and Scotland and £35 elsewhere.
The middle group comprised all existing controlled houses where the rateable value exceeded £20 in London £25 and 5 shillings in Scotland and £13 elsewhere. These became subject to decontrol by the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Act 1923 when the landlord obtained vacant possession or granted a new minimum period two-year lease or tenancy.
The remaining controlled houses, the smallest houses, were those with rateable values not exceeding £20/£25.25/£13 as above. These could not become decontrolled piecemeal but were to remain controlled until the Rent Acts expired. If a house within these rateable value limits had become decontrolled under the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Act 1923 it was not automatically brought back into control by the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions (Amendment) Act 1933. It could remain decontrolled provided the landlord registered it as decontrolled within three months of the enactment of the 1933 act.
Rents could be increased by a percentage of the relevant expenditure to reflect the provision of additional or improved fixtures or fittings made after enactment of the 1933 act.
A tenant of a dwelling that had become decontrolled by this act had to be served one month's notice that the possession would be required on the date specified in the notice unless a new tenancy had been negotiated before the notice ran out.
Succession As has been mentioned above, the right of succession granted in the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act 1920 now required six months' residence except for a widow. A widower could also succeed to the tenancy as a member of his deceased wife's family provided that the six months' test was satisfied.
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