Feb

BREAKING: Welsh government drops notice period bombshell on landlords

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An amendment to the looming Renting Homes (Wales) Act will, if passed by the Welsh Assembly, triple the notice period a tenant must be given to six months.

The Welsh Assembly has
dropped a bombshell on the country’s landlords after housing minister Julie
James yesterday introduced proposed legislation that will extend the minimum
notice period from two to six months.

She wants tenants to be given
much more time to get ready to leave a property after a landlord has decided to
take repossession via a ‘no fault’ Section 21 eviction, particularly if they
have children in a local school, are in ill health or want to find a property
to rent nearby.

The changes are understood to
also be a gesture to campaigning groups such as Shelter, which has been running
a campaign in Wales to have ‘no fault’ evictions banned as they are due to be
in England.

Welsh Ministers are already
bringing in significant changes to the rental sector with the introduction of
the Renting Homes (Wales) Act which replaces the
secure tenancy and assured tenancy regimes which currently operate under the
Housing Act 1985 and Housing Act 1988 respectively.

The act has already been
passed in the Assembly but is not due to be enacted until later this year. This
amendment introduced yesterday is a modification of the act and will now be
debated by Assembly Members.

At the moment, Welsh
landlords must wait until six months have passed before they can serve notice
through a ‘no fault’ eviction but, if they have planned ahead and served an
unused Section 21 notice at the start of the tenancy, then evict a tenant.

If
the amendment is passed, a letting agent or landlord wishing to evict a tenant
via a no-fault notice will have to wait until six months has passed from the
beginning of the tenancy, serve notice and then wait for a further six months.

Read the official explanatory
note for the amendment in full.

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