New Landlord Law content for Welsh Landlords

The date of the implementation of the new Welsh legislation (the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 is getting closer.  Provided the date is not pushed back again, it should be 1 December 2022.

We now have a large amount of content for Landlord Law members on the new legislation, which is listed here (non-members can view the page but not the content linked from it).

Content includes numerous FAQ answering various questions on points on the new legislation and several long articles.

The government official prescribed forms, for example, the possession forms, are all available on the Wales documents and forms page as are some letters.  

Before D-Day on 1 December, I will be checking over the rest of the Landlord Law content and indicating whether it is Wales or England only or available for both.

Draft Occupation Contracts

I first started work on these back in the spring, but then decided it would be best to do the background information content first.  I went back to the occupation contracts last week and have now got draft versions online here for members to check.

Please note the following:

• The drafts are for renting a whole property or flat.  I hope to get versions for a room in a shared house online shortly.  But they will be very similar.
• The contracts are very long.  This is because most of the content is prescribed terms, and there are a lot of them.   There is nothing to be done about this!
• Although slight amendment of some of the prescribed terms is permitted, I have decided to leave them as they are. Otherwise, we might risk (if the amendments were found to be invalid) making you liable for a penalty payment.
• We are, however, allowed to add ‘additional clauses’, and I have added quite a few.   You will be able to find them easily, as on the drafts, I have put the ‘additional clauses’ headings in red.
• The additional clauses are taken from the Landlord Law tenancy agreements, and so if you are a Welsh landlord using our agreements, we should be able to use a slightly amended version for the converted occupation contract, which will need to be served on your existing tenants by 1 June 2023 (six months from the date the legislation goes live). 

I would be really grateful if you are a Landlord Law Wales member, if you could let me have your feedback on the new documents, ideally by Monday, 21 November.

After that, I will need to create document generator templates for the forms.  Which, as they are so long, will not be an easy job!

Members will find the new drafts here.