LATEST: Welsh letting agents prepare for new renting rules to now go live this summer
Minister says Renting Homes Act Wales will go live on July 15th, ushering in permanent six-month notice periods and eviction restrictions.
Letting agents and landlords in Wales face significant challenges from July 15th onwards when the country’s new and ‘problematical’ Renting Homes Wales Act comes into force, its housing minister has announced.
After that date renters must be given six months’ notice by a landlord of an intention to take possession of a property when there is no ‘fault’ by the tenant such as failing to pay the rent or anti-social behaviour.
This is already the case after the measure was introduced during Covid and then extended until mid-March – but will now be made permanent.
Secure one-year
Tenants are also to be given a minimum one-year ‘secure tenancy’ from their moving in date and will be referred to as ‘contract holders’ from now onwards.
These, along with other measures within the Act, mean a tenant who is not at fault will be given a minimum tenure security of one year from the date of moving in.
Evictions
The Act also gives tenants strong protection against retaliatory eviction by preventing evictions when a landlord has refused to tackle repairs and seeks to evict instead.
Also, the legislation will make it easier for tenants to be added or removed from ‘occupation contracts’ without the need to end one contract and start another.
This will make managing joint contracts easier and help those experiencing domestic abuse by enabling the perpetrator to be targeted for eviction.
Daryl McIntosh (pictured), Policy Manager at Propertymark says: “Communication and education will be key to the success of the new tenancy regime that the Renting Homes (Wales) Act brings.
“The changes could be problematic if agents are not well versed, and we would suggest that agents prepare well in advance of July which is something we will be supporting our members through.
“It remains to be seen how the changes to notice periods will affect the choices of both landlords and tenants as their access to flexibility is restricted.”
The announcement has been made today because the Welsh government promised to give landlords six months’ notice of the new rules, which will be available on its website from Friday, January 14th onwards.
In November the Welsh government signalled that rent controls are a strong likelihood after the Labour and Plaid Cymru parties formed an allianc.e
Sounds OK – ever since the tenant fee ban to avoid landlords paying double fees in 1 year which can happen granting a 6 month tenancy and the tenant leaving at the end of 6 months, we lock the tenant into a 12 month tenancy, very rarely now do we find a landlord willing to offer a 6 month tenancy – so this works against tenants who are looking for a 6 month let – e.g people who have sold and looking for their next purchase.
With regards a 6 month notice big deal we serve so few s21 notices anyway and when have done they are only on a problematic tenant or the landlord requires the property for his own use or to sell. What this will mean for tenants is that tenancy agreements will contain a clause allowing the landlord to view the property to let or sell in the last 6 months of the tenancy – i am sure tenants will enjoy this disruption when previously it was restricted to the last 2 months!