Member

My Amendment 115 deals with a provision in the Bill that says that payment of rent before the tenancy is signed is prohibited. The purpose of my amendment is to remove that provision altogether. I make that submission to your Lordships because this provision in the Bill is entirely impractical. I ask my noble friend the Minister whether there is evidence of landlord abuse in collecting tenants’ money and running off to another land with it in their pocket. In other words, what is the evidence that there has been abuse by landlords collecting rents and then not signing the agreement and disappearing?