Rent Smart Wales

  • Regulation & Lawinsurance
    Regulation & Law

    Broker warns many agents lack sufficient PI insurance

    Insurance broker, MINT, has revealed how an alarming number of agents are at risk of having their licences revoked because of insufficient Professional Indemnity cover.

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  • Latest property news
    Latest property news

    Record £20,000 fine for unlicensed landlord with 62 properties

    Cardiff landlord Charles Baker is to pay £200,000 fine and costs after failing to gain relevant licences from Rent Smart Wales.

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  • Latest property news
    Latest property news

    Regulator prosecutes its first non-compliant letting agent in Wales – £4,600 fine follows

    The first letting agent in Wales fined under the recently-introduced Rent Smart Wales scheme must now pay over £4,600 in fines after a hearing at Cardiff Magistrates Court. As we have reported before several landlords have already been prosecuted and fined under the scheme, which requires all rental properties to be registered and landlords and agents to be licensed, but now the first agents are being taken to court Agent Yvette Phillips, who trades as R Miles Scurlock of Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire, had failed to submit a completed licence application or register the properties she managed. She was issued a Fixed Penalty Notice in June but failed to pay it and continued to ignore or comply with Rent Smart Wales. At a hearing at Cardiff Magistrates Court she was fined £4,600 under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, ordered her to pay court costs of £671 and a £170 victim surcharge. Outside the law “It’s almost one year on since the November 23 deadline for all landlords with properties in Wales to become registered and yet there are landlords and agents still out there who believe they can operate outside of the law,” says Welsh Cabinet Member for Housing and…

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  • Latest property newsrent smart wales
    Latest property news

    Newport landlord is first to be fined for non-compliance with Rent Smart Wales

    The first fine has been issued to a landlord for not being registered or licenced under the Rent Smart Wales scheme. Landlords who rent out properties in Wales have, since November 2016, been required to register with Rent Smart Wales and must now provide information about both themselves and their properties. Also, landlords must also either have a licence to be a landlord in Wales, or use a letting or managing agent who is licenced. Rent Smart Wales The first landlord to be collared by the scheme is Robert Ivor Grovell who lives in the village of Llanfrechfa outside Newport. After being successfully prosecuted Grovell must now pay £4,400 both for failing to comply with Rent Smart Wales but also for operating a “dangerous, unlicensed house in multiple occupation”, the organisation says. He must also pay costs of £1,000 and a victim surcharge of £170. Non-compliance Grovell was prosecuted under Section 7(5) of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 at Newport Magistrates court for his non-compliance. The offence was one of a number brought against him by Newport City Council for housing-related offences at a property on Orchard Street in Newport to which he pleaded guilty. In December last year Environmental…

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  • Latest property newswelsh flat
    Latest property news

    Rent Smart Wales: 75% of letting agents not licensed yet

    Three quarters of letting agents in Wales have not signed up to register with the country’s compulsory licensing scheme for agents and landlords, even though there is just two and a half weeks to go before it starts. The warning comes from a ‘concerned’ Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) as the deadline looms for agents and landlords alike. “If landlords and agents find themselves unlicensed when the deadline arrives on 23rd November they will be unable to practice, so it’s important to act soon,” says David Cox, ARLA’s managing director. After the deadline Rent Smart Wales will responsible for policing the country’s rental market through a licensing system for agents that requires them to complete training and then get approved by the scheme. Landlords must also undertake the training if they wish to self-manage their properties, or alternatively use a licensed agent if they do not want to do the training. Also, anyone renting out a property in Wales must comply with the new regulation regardless of whether they live there or not. ARLA, which runs one of the Rent Smart Wales-approved training courses via the NFoPP Residential Letting and Property Management qualification (Levels 2,3 and 4) says it reckons…

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  • Latest property newsRent Smart Wales
    Regulation & Law

    New law for lettings agents in Wales

    A new registration and licensing system for landlords and lettings agents was introduced in Wales this week, as part of the Rent Smart Wales initiative. Under the new law, which came into play on Monday, with a view to improve letting and management standards for people who rent private accommodation in Wales,landlords and agents are now required to take part in a new registration and licensing scheme, which forms a key part of The Housing (Wales) Act 2014. Landlords who need to register, and landlords and agents who need to become licensed, can now register and apply for a licence. They have 12 months from 23rdNovember 2015 in which to comply with the new legislation. During this first year there will be a focus on raising awareness of the new requirements and encouraging compliance. This new law sees Wales become the first country in the UK where managing landlords and agents are obliged to obtain a new type of licence as well as undertake training to ensure they are aware of their rights and responsibilities. The new Rent Smart Wales scheme replaces the previous voluntary Landlord Accreditation Wales initiative, which was operated by Cardiff Council on behalf of all local…

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