Wales resources

Renting homes Wales introduces new occupation contracts with new required terms that landlords must follow. It also introduces new rights for contract-holders (the new name for tenants).

While the Welsh government has produced two model occupation contracts, they aren't really suitable for use by landlords. The NRLA has produced a more suitable contract that combines the fixed term and periodic contracts together, meaning you only need to agree one contract at the start.

If you already had a tenant in place on 1 December 2022, your tenancy agreement was replaced by a converted occupation contract. These contracts have different dates to comply with key requirements like fitting smoke alarms and giving a copy of the updated contract to the contract-holders. They also have different rules for seeking possession compared to standard occupation contracts.

This guidance is designed to help you understand the differences between standard and converted contracts, and help you understand how to amend your older tenancy into a converted occupation contract before May 31st 2023.

Renting Homes Wales requires the landlord to provide the contract-holder with a lot of information, including an EPC, gas safety certificate, electrical installation condition report, and information about the landlord. 

Failure to do this can cause serious issues later on with potential fines and potentially preventing you from serving a possesion notice. This checklist is designed to help you show that you have complied with all your obligations.

Taking a guarantor is a common thing to do where you have any concerns around the contract-holders ability to pay the rent. The document on this page has been designed for use under Renting Homes Wales and can be used with the new occupation contracts going forward.

A number of new prescribed forms are introduced by Renting Homes Wales that landlords must use going forward. These forms include notices telling your contract holder about a change of address, a rent increase, or changing ownership of the property.

This page houses the NRLA completion instructions and guidance for most of these prescribed forms. For prescribed forms relating to ending a contract, please see the specific guidance.

Under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act the rules for increasing rent have changed and landlords will need to familiarise themselves with these new rules. 

This guidance explains when you can increase the rent, how much you may increase the rent by and the different rules that apply where your contract-holders moved in before December 1st 2022.

The tenant fee ban continues to apply to occupation contracts. This guidance sets out what fees are permitted, what is banned, and provides a downloadable holding deposit form for you to use when taking a holding deposit in Wales.

Under Renting Homes Wales, landlords will usually include a supplementary clause requiring an inventory be performed. The NRLA provides guidance and resources on completing an inventory in Wales here.

For landlords in Wales, there are special rules and requirements around holding deposits due to the fee ban. In particular they must provide prospective contract-holders with certain essential information.

This page provides downloadable resources such as a holding and example letters to inform the contract-holder about success or failure of their application.

Referencing is one of the best ways to protect yourself as a landlord. By collecting information at an early stage you can improve your chances of finding a suitable contract-holder or guarantor. It also increases your chances of identifying one of the small minority of contract-holders who persistently refuse to pay rent or damage the property.

This page provides Wales-specific resources for use by landlords in Wales, including an application form for contract-holders

Where a landlord needs to serve possession, the Renting Homes (Wales) Act requires you to serve the correct prescribed form before you can apply to court. 

This page provides guidance on the different possession notices, as well as any restrictions that apply before you can serve notice.

Once your notice has expired, if your contract-holders stay in the property then your next step will be to apply for a possession order. This page covers the correct forms to use and some resources to help you complete these forms.

Please note that at the time of writing the Welsh Government has not produced all of the court forms that are needed for possession in Wales, making it more difficult to complete the court forms.

Renting Homes Wales introduces a new requirement on landlords to ensure the property remains fit for human habitation for the lifetime of the tenancy. This guidance sets out the general requirements of the new legislation.

One of the key fitness for human habitation requirements is ensuring that the property has sufficient working smoke and CO alarms. This guidance provides details on complying with this requirement.

Landlords in Wales may be able to retake possession without a court order where the property has been vacated by the contract-holder. To do this they must follow the statutory abandonment procedure. This guide covers what to do and which forms to use.

Coming into force from May 4 2021, the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space) allows people in England and Wales with unsustainable debts to arrange to enter a ‘breathing space’. While a contract-holder is in a breathing space this means landlords cannot request payment of a debt or take enforcement action around the debt.

This page provides guidance on preparing for breathing space, including best practice tips on mitigating the risk to you.

Under Renting Homes Wales, deposits still need to be protected within 30 days of receipt and prescribed information still needs to be issued. See guidance on protecting your deposit here.

The Government has now legislated to require landlords who pay the energy bills to pass on a reasonable and fair proportion of the energy support to their tenants.

Read the guidance and download the factsheet on this here.

Energy Performance Certificates were introduced in England and Wales in 2007. These certificates rate a property's energy efficiency on a scale of A-G. You are required to have one if you plan to market a property for sale or let in most circumstances.

As part of complying with the General Data Protection Regulation you are expected to provide a privacy notice explaining how you use the personal information you hold about any individual in the course of your business. This will include any prospective contract-holders or guarantors once you are in contact with them.

If you are letting out the property to three or more people where at least two of them are unrelated to each other, then you will usually have a house in multiple occupation (HMO).

Generally, these types of properties provide higher yields making them an attractive financial proposition. However, in exchange the landlord has to ensure they are complying with far more stringent management duties. 

If the HMO is licensed there are certain minimum amenity standards you must meet as part of your licence conditions.

Landlords of residential accommodation have responsibilities for combating Legionnaires' Disease. Health and safety legislation requires that landlords carry out risk assessments for the Legionella bacteria which cause Legionnaires' Disease and thereafter maintain control measures to minimise the risk. Most rented premises will be low risk but it is important that risk assessments are carried out and control measures introduced.

Need to perform a legionella risk assessment? Use our template

Need to update a previous assessment? Use our risk review form

The purpose of this guide is to provide an overview of the small claims process for landlords. In it, we will discuss the various stages that a landlord is expected to follow, the information they are expected to provide, as well as best practice tips for avoiding ever having to use the small claims process in the first place.

Once you have successfully made a small claim, we also have guidance on the different options available to enforce the judgement. 

The Competition and Marketing Authority has produced guidance for lettings professionals on how to market your property to tenants/contract-holders. If you are an agent it also provides guidance on how to market services you provide to landlords

Read the complete CMA guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consumer-protection-law-for-lettings-professionals

Since April 2018, the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards have made it a legal requirement for all privately rented properties to have an EPC rating of at least an 'E' before they are let. As of April 2020, this requirement has now been extended to tenancies that existed prior to April 2018.

For listed buildings see our specific guidance on this area

The primary mechanism for enforcement in Wales is now the Rent Smart Wales scheme. Landlords must register and where they are performing Property Management or Lettings Work, they must also have a licence with the scheme. Alternatively, they can register and employ a licensed agent to manage the property for them.

Standard occupation contracts are only applicable to agreements between a landlord and a person. As a result, when letting a property to a company you will still use common law tenancy agreements and the Renting Homes Wales rules don't apply.

Download a company let agreement here. 

For landlords who served a Section 8 notice prior to 1 December 2022, they still have some time in which to apply to court using that Section 8 notice. Until May 31st 2023 existing Section 8 notices remain valid and the guidance on this page will explain how to fill out the required court papers to start a possession claim.