x
By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies to enhance your experience.
Graham Awards

TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

Six months notice mandatory for many evictions from 2022 in Wales

New simplified rental contracts are to be introduced from spring 2022 in Wales with minimum notice periods for evictions extended from two to six months in most cases.

In addition landlords will be prevented from serving notice at all for the first six months of a tenant’s contract. 

However, Welsh landlords will still be able to repossess their property if a tenant is in breach of contract.

Advertisement

Welsh Government housing and local government minister Julie James says the end result will be fairer, simpler and more efficient. 

“Thanks to our efforts, tenants will have greater peace of mind when renting. Everyone has the right to feel secure in their own home and to be able to plan for the future” she says.

And she adds: “Clearer and easier to understand contracts will reduce disputes and legal costs and the new regime will provide a better way for landlords to deal with abandoned properties.”

Calum Davies, Welsh Policy and Public Affairs Officer for the National Residential Landlords Association, responds by saying: “We are glad that the Welsh Government has not gone as far as to remove no-reason-given possessions, and accepted committee recommendations based on our proposals to explore a Welsh Housing Court and better data collection – which the NRLA have been calling for.

“However, it is worth highlighting that several of our proposals were not adopted and this could unfortunately lead to negative consequences for the wider sector, including landlords leaving the market. The implication of this is it would decrease housing supply at a time when people are more dependent on private rented housing following the economic aftermath of Coronavirus.

 

“The central issue with this legislation is it encourages landlords to go to court to seek possession when they sadly have no confidence in such a slow justice system – and this was prior to the pandemic increasing the backlog significantly.

“After four pieces of law passing in the last seven years focussing on the private rented sector, what landlords and tenants need now is a break to adjust to the new regime, allowing policymakers to assess the effectiveness of the legislation.”

Want to comment on this story? If so...if any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals on any basis, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.

  • icon

    The writing was on the wall as soon as the 6 month eviction notice was brought in. I'm sure this will become standard. I have no real problem with this as we all like to plan. A landlords only problem is if the tenant stops paying. Advice i've seen from other Landlords's on this website with using CCJ's will be a route that I take. Plus the credit rating soon to be including rent payments overtime will be a very useful tool. Change is always inevitable!

    icon

    Lets assume the renter has done nothing wrong and are the ideal renter, two months notice has never been long enough to find not just any house but a suitable one, in the right area, price etc, often viewings can be weeks away and even after viewing multiple viewers apply, this can take weeks and if you dont get the property two months can come and gone, a house buyer is never under such pressure to be forced to buy in a set period, this is why 6 months is well overdue and in some cases still not long enough in my view

     
    icon

    David Edmunds, we are not talking about your '' ideal renters'' here, good tenants have nothing to fear, we are talking about the rogue none paying bums that we need out ASAP .

     
    icon

    Ideal renters can ask for a new AST but in any case will usually only be asked to move if essential to the landlord and given as much notice as possible.

    If it's difficult to find somewhere suitable within two months, then there must be a shortage of sui table properties, which means the rents are too low and there isn't a balanced market.

    Higher rents will lead to more good properties being available for good tenants when they need them. Everyone wins when supply and demand are balanced, which means lower rents if plenty of properties available and higher rents in a shortage,

    Incidentally I don't think you understand the legal contracts involved in buying and selling properties. Time pressures can be enormous as it's a longer much more complex procedure than simply signing a new tenancy agreement, and agreed entry and vacation dates are legally binding, with expensive penalties if they are not honoured.

     
  • icon

    It'll save time just to serve notice at the same time as the tenancy agreement is signed. Notice can always be withdrawn by landords allowing tenants to stay on if they behave themselves.

    The Welsh Government needs to talk to their SNP cronies, the experts in screwing landlords, as this idea is easily got round. Yet another loony leftie policy that will backfire and only hurt decent tenants.

    icon

    Be careful with this strategy as you can't actually serve notice to terminate until 10 months has passed i.e. from 4 months. Therefore the minimum term now is essentially 10 months.
    I appreciate its a minimum of 6 months and you would therefore be serving it 10 months early, but I would imagine new legislation will close a loophole that allows Landlord's to serve notice immediately after a Tenant signs the Tenancy Agreement.
    It's becoming a minefield....all on purpose of course!

     
    icon

    OK, so serve the notice after 4 months and offer to withdraw it if they're good boys and girls?

     
    icon

    Renters are customers, how would you feel if you went into Tesco and they said if you are a good boy we might let you shop here

     
    icon

    David Edmunds, Tesco's would not welcome shop lifters into their stores, the same as landlords do not welcome none paying tenants into their properties.

     
    icon

    David Edmunds.

    Question:: Why do supermarkets have security guards?
    @
    Answer: Precisely to warn bad boys and girls to be good if they want to shop there and thus ensure respectable law abiding paying customers can enjoy their shopping experience safely and in peace, without it being overpriced to compensate for high levels of theft or vandalism etc.

    Unfortunately the loony lefties have sentenced many decent tenants to a life of higher rents and often sheer misery by protecting their rogue tenant neighbours from fast and easy evictions. Rent dodgers tend to be antisocial and destructive as well as thieves.

     
  • icon

    Well I agree its been years since we were allowed a section 21 at the beginning of Contract which I had done for years as well but never to got rid of them if everyone was happy we just signed another Contract, on the other hand if they wanted to go they knew where they stood and everything was in order.
    They changed that some years back now so you could say it was already a minimum of 6 months as the Assured Shorthold Tenancy was for no less than 6 months but you couldn't sever the S.21 during the first 4 months, then you had to give 2 months notice, now they are tearing it altogether.

    icon

    Since the SNP made the Scottish system different (i.e. worse , like everything they touch!) I've lost touch with what applies in the rest of the UK.

    Just be thankful that (at least for now) you can still specify fixed term leases. On the other hand, the exodus of many landlords and moving properties to short lets only has helped rents of the most desirable properties to soar, so it's not all bad up here (yet!).

     
    icon

    What does the legislation say specifically about the length of validity on a S.21? They used to last indefinitely but, I think, that is now restricted to six months - is that six months from date of service (so with the new six month required notice period, they’d effectively expire if you didn’t utilise it on the notice period expiry date) or is the legislation worded in such a way that they expire four months after the expiry date (accounting for the old two months notice, plus four to make a total of six)...?

     
  • icon

    yes a lot of LL were doing Airbnb style short term lets in London, then the Airplanes stopped flying and they switched back quickly grabbing our potential Tenants causing us another problem. Many were using the system to avoid Licensing and I believe breaking the 90 day rule if its possible for anyone to understand it, you can't let the whole property more than 90 days in a year this way but I think you can let some of the rooms with Airbnb & others rooms normal lets continuing in same property so is it licence-able or not its mad. From memory the platform had to pay Revenue £1.8m and pass the details of all hosts to Revenue so anyone not declaring it better get their finger out.

icon

Please login to comment

MovePal MovePal MovePal
sign up