Unique solution to help landlords navigate Renting Homes (Wales) Act
TRAINING FOR PROFESSIONALS HAS CREATED A ‘UNIVERSAL WRITTEN STATEMENT’ THAT CAN BE USED WITH ANY CONVERTED TENANCY OR LICENCE
One of the UK’s largest lettings legislation training providers has unveiled a unique solution to help busy landlords in Wales navigate new tenancy rules - but warned there are only a couple of months left to take advantage of it. On December 1, the law surrounding the renting of residential property experienced its most significant overhaul for many years with the implementation of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. The new Act, which was much debated and delayed, replaces various and complex pieces of existing legislation and case law. The most significant change is that landlords must issue tenants
(or ‘contract holders’) with a written statement setting out the terms of the tenancy/occupation-contract. More pressingly, contracts that existed before December 1 are now called ‘converted contracts’ and the landlord must issue a written statement before the end of May 2023 - just three short months from now. This written statement is considerably more complex because it recognises there may be existing agreements in place that clash with the new rules. Needless to say, landlords in Wales are understandably concerned about the new Act and what it will mean for them. ‘Robbing landlords of valuable time’
This is where Training for Professionals (TFP) can help. Established in 1993, it works with hundreds of agents and landlords across Wales and has an almost unique perspective on the issues faced by these new changes. Managing Director David d’Orton Gibson, who has worked for more than 30 years in the industry, explained: “Time is money
and the Act risks robbing landlords of valuable time. “This new law completely changes the way landlords and tenants rent their properties. “Very importantly, the new legislation requires every contract holder to be given a written statement setting out the terms of the tenancy/occupation-contract. “This statement is a mixture of content specified in the law and terms agreed between the parties when setting up the contract. “Not only does it have to be given at the outset, but if a later variation is agreed, perhaps a rent increase, the contract holder has to be given an updated statement.
“For occupation contracts coming into force after December 1 last year, the landlord has just 14 days to provide this statement or there’s a penalty that the contract-holder does not have to pay rent for up to two months. “As you can imagine, if the average rent is around £800, that can be quite a swingeing hit for what might be an innocent mistake.”
Huge amount of work
So it didn’t take long for the hugely-experienced team at TFP to realise they had to find an easier way of producing written statements for converted contracts. David said: “We had produced occupational contracts for December 1 and were very familiar with tenancy agreements before that. “So we were happy to provide written statements for two users of our tenancy agreement but, even with all our experience, we found they both took two weeks of longhand work to produce. “Even then users had lots more to do as we wouldn’t have known about any changes and special clauses - like not hanging washing on the balcony or parking in a particular area. So users still had to do considerable editing and comparison with the previous tenancy. “If two properties were let on two different agreements, maybe because two different tenancy suppliers were used, the whole task needs to be done again for each contract. “Our experience shows that it can take many many hours to try and work all this out, and even then, judgements about the final clauses still exist, as it is not always clear if a clause is incompatible. “After realising how much work this caused us, we started to look for a better way of doing things.” An intuitive and comprehensive solution
They soon came up with the idea of producing a ‘universal written statement’ that could be used with any converted tenancy or licence, regardless of whether it’s a managed or let-only property. David said: “We believe we have a solution to significantly reduce the work needed in providing these written statements in a very cost-effective way. “Our universal written statement is an intuitive and comprehensive answer that streamlines the creation of written statements for converted contracts, saving landlords both time and money. “Instead of spending a week or more creating an individual written statement, they can simply use our Universal Written Statement Pack to complete the task in a fraction of the time. “All they need to do is add the rent to the universal written statement and attach a copy of the old tenancy. “We believe this is completely unique approach and see this as being a massive benefit to all the landlords and agents in Wales. “It’s so exciting to know we’re helping to reduce their work and create real opportunities for them to raise more revenue.”
If you would like help with producing written statements for converted contracts, speak to Mark Thomson at Training for Professionals on 01258 85 85 85, email mark@tfponline.co.uk, or visit the website.