The Welsh Government has published a draft amendment to the Renting Homes Wales Act, which affects the terms of converted contracts and any subsequent renewals that replace them.
The Renting Homes Wales Act was introduced on 1 December 2022, requiring all existing assured shorthold tenancies and licences in Wales to be converted into occupation contracts.
The amendments will ‘close off’ several regulatory grey areas that might potentially cause issues for landlords during court proceedings.
The new legislation means that the original converted contract terms should be provided by 31st May 2023 and any renewed terms agreed already should be provided by 14th June 2023.
If the holder of the contract has changed between December 1st 2022 and May 31st 2023, the landlord must provide them with a copy of the written statement by 14th June 2023.
If a new contract replaces a converted contract, after 1st June the landlord will be required to provide a written statement within 14 days from the start of the contract. This allows landlords to renew contracts after this date without facing penalties. It will also ease the administrative burden, as these contracts are fairly indistinguishable from standard contracts.
Landlords in Wales will now be able to work towards a definitive deadline to ensure their contracts are compliant with the Renting Homes Wales Act’s key requirements in this area.
The National Residential Landlords Association, said: “This announcement provides some much needed clarity for landlords on when they need to meet the obligations set out in the Renting Homes Wales Act. Above all, it means that landlords now have a level of certainty with respect to the timeline they can now work towards over the coming months.
“However, all of this confusion and subsequent tweaking to regulations was totally avoidable.
“The Welsh Government should have listened to the concerns of industry stakeholders properly and, in our view, much more needs to be done by the Welsh Government to restore the confidence of landlords, which has been badly damaged by the botched rollout of these reforms.”