If you are currently a landlord in or if you rent property in Wales – the Welsh legislation will be changing on 1 December 2022!
This is when the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 will be coming into force. The changes are massive and will take a while to get used to. For example
- There will no longer be assured shorthold tenancies. Most tenancies and residential licenses will convert to ‘occupation contracts’ and be subject to the new Welsh legislation
- There is a whole new terminology. Contract holders rather than tenants or licensees, written statements for tenancies or license agreements, dwelling rather than property,
- Landlords will be required by law to provide written contracts to their contract holders. Which must contain a large (a very large) number of prescribed terms – or face penalties
- There will be new prescribed forms which must be used
- It will be easier to add or swap out contract holders if one wants to leave early
There is also the obligation for all landlords to be registered or (if they want to self-manage) be licensed by Rent Smart Wales. Which has been with us for some time.
Welsh law – my year-long project
Having decided that on Landlord Law, we would continue to support our Welsh members, I have had a year-long project to study the new legislation and provide written guidance for our members.
I have also had to check over and add amendments to the Welsh model occupation contracts. Which, whatever they may tell you, are NOT suitable for use by landlords unamended. For example:
- They do not include the clauses you need if you take a deposit
- You will not be able to use the abandonment procedure, and
- There is no pet prohibition clause.
So having spent some considerable time reading the legislation on screen (which has probably irreversibly damaged my eyesight), I have now created a large number of articles and FAQs on various issues. I am also in the process of creating new checklists aimed at Welsh landlords.
So hopefully, from 1 December, we will have sufficient online information to help Welsh landlords understand their new legal rights and obligations.
Although if there are any questions not answered on the site, members can always ask me questions on the Members Discussion Forum.
And finally
If you are based in Wales and are interested in using our service, click here to see what Welsh content we have. You can join Landlord Law online here.
I may also be able to help if you need training on the new Welsh rules for your staff.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/growing-crisis-facing-cardiffs-rental-25070441
“The growing crisis facing Cardiff’s rental market with landlords selling up and 100 people fighting for every property”
“What we’re seeing right now is the upshot of what happens if you over-regulate and over-tax the private rental sector.”
They are a bit of a nightmare, and people don’t like change. However as Simon White said in our podcast https://landlordlawyerpodcast.com/21-discussing-legal-reform-in-wales-with-simon-white/, once people get used to them they may find that they are better.
For example, the terms in occupation contracts will largely be the same for everyone, unlike the widely differing clauses found in English tenancy agreements.
In answer to your unanswered question at 22.00 about if more landlords are selling up in Wales than the rest of the UK;
https://propertyinvestorpost.com/welsh-landlords-driven-out-of-the-market-ahead-of-the-renting-homes-wales-act/
“Twice as many landlords in Wales are selling their buy-to-let investments compared to the rest of the UK, ARLA Propertymark data shows.”