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Fast Facts!

In Wales now there are very few opportunities for a landlord to give notice to his Contract Holders within a fixed term.

It will have to be a fixed term of 2 years in order to add a break clause which can only be implemented after 18 months and will be a 6 month notice a RHW24 will be needed to achieve this.

In a converted fixed term contract and still within the same fixed term that started before Dec 1st 2022 a RHW38 notice can be served within the fixed term to end the contract with 2 months notice but not to end before the end of the fixed term.

Otherwise a notice can only be served after the fixed term ends and the contract becomes periodic. 

Any new contract even if it is periodic from the start cannot be ended with a notice served within the first 6 months, it can only be served after the first 6 months and will be a 6 month RHW16 notice. 

However the contract holders will also be tied within the fixed term but then can give notice to leave when the contract is periodic of normally one month.

Joint Contract Holders Comings and Goings?

So what happens in Wales now when a contract holder wants to leave a contract and when a new contract holder wants to be added to the contract? Does a landlord have to give his consent? What if one of your joint contract students doesn't turn up? What if one joint contract holder wants to break a contract with his co contract holder? What if one of your joint contract holders is violent towards the others? Can the landlord help? Well I'm so glad to be able to praise the Renting Homes Wales Act for a change as we have been given processes and documents to enable much easier solutions than were available before, so to answer the questions above .....

*What if one joint contract holder is anti social or violent towards the others? Well the landlord can issue a notice using first the RHW32 to the guilty contract holder and RHW33 to the joint innocent contract holders to evict the guilty party

*What if one of the joint contract holders has failed to return? The landlord can issue RHW29 & RHW30 regards non occupation and the remaining contract holders can issue a RHW31 against the one that failed to return too if they want to instigate this change

What if one member of a couple has left and the remaining contract holder wants to take that name off the contract? RHW31 can be issued by the contract holder who then takes on the full obligations as a sole remaining contract holder

*What if a JOINT contract holder wants to transfer his rights under a joint contract? RHW11 issued means that their obligations can be transferred to another person (see landlords consent)

*What if a SOLE contract holder wants to transfer his contract and rights and obligations under his contact to someone else? RHW10 can be issued (see again landlords consent) to 'novate' the contract to another contract holder

*What if one joint fixed term  contract holder dies? RHW14 can be the written statement changing to a sole contract holder.

Now what if a joint contract holder wants to end the contract early and leave within a fixed term or the contract holders want to add to or lose contract holders from the contract? Well the landlord does not have to agree in a fixed term. If he does want to agree then an agreement can be negotiated between landlord and contract holder and the appropriate process exists within the RHW Act. If a change of contract holder is agreed however, then a RHW13 notice will suffice to evidence the change of joint contract holder.  Whether or not that agreement can contain a financial settlement and not breach the Tenant Fee Ban section of RHW Act is uncertain but if the only alternative is that the contract holder pays for the whole fixed term suggests that any lesser financial agreement would be acceptable. Perhaps the re letting costs that would not have been incurred plus rent until the new let or replacement contract holder starts? 

In a periodic however the landlord may only say no if there is a reasonable excuse to do so. 

Reasons to refuse - will it change the nature of the occupation when adding an extra occupier to the contract? Will it become an HMO (3 or more people from 2 or more families)? Will it then become an HMO that needs a licence? Or perhaps will it fit the overcrowding criteria? I would suggest that these will be a reason that can be legitimately used to refuse permission. Otherwise the landlord will have to comply with the contract holders requests. But there is a process. So firstly with a periodic contract the processes involve warnings to landlords and tenants plus notices. Lets take these issues one at a time......

Changes to periodic joint occupation contracts -

Contract holder dropping off joint contracts The landlord and co contract holders need to be issued warning notices from the leaver about his leaving the joint contract. Also the landlord must follow this up with warning notices of his own to the co contract holders and a RHW29 to the exiting contract holder. After this a written statement about the change must be issued as an addendum to the existing occupation contract by way of  RHW30.

Contract holder to be replaced  Notice can be served in a periodic to effect the change  RHW11 (to transfer from exiting contract holder to incoming contract holder) after the same warning notices process has been completed as above. The RHW11 for the transfer should suffice as the written statement of the event that happened ie the transfer of contract holders.

Many of the above changes can be achieved without a new occupation contract being needed. Just a written statement of the event that happened. 

Inventory & deposit issues:

Of course if a new contract holder is being added then the deposit names should be corrected and the best way to achieve this is by the incoming contract holder pays the deposit to the outgoing contract holder and the deposit scheme informed of the new names.

Then obviously a new inventory is not going to be completed and so the new incoming contract holder would need to sign acceptance of the original inventory. There is no Wales government form for this but if you need one please email this blog and we can send you a template.

So complex but clearer for all involved (after a while!). Handled correctly I believe this can start to heal the division between landlords and contract holders that occurs when these type of changes had to be made in the past. 

Right of access?

In the light of yesterdays news about Greenpeace 'invading' Rishi Sunak's home it made me think about what rights do landlords have to 'invade' the homes of their tenants/contract holders? 

Obviously I am not political in any way and would think twice about suggesting its a bit of a coincidence that Rishi was away and also his security, but its going to become a trespass case for these poor zealots with whose ideology Rishi is in agreement. What about when our tenants refuse us access?

Well, if you got up this morning and someone was on your front lawn or even setting up a tent on the lawn you would likely call the police to have them removed and this is the law as they will be trespassing on your property. This is also true for tenants if there was someone camping on their front lawn, they would be trespassers and could be removed and perhaps arrested as trespassers - even if one of those campers was the landlord! He would be trespassing on his own property!

But could the landlord claim he has the right to go to his property? After all there is usually a 24 hour notice clause in the contract can't we just send them notice and if there is nobody at home enter with our spare keys? The answer is twofold I think. Most importantly, there is no automatic right of access and if you wanted to enforce the 24 hour notice clause it would need to enforced by a court order, this is quite common for example where the tenant refuses the access to conduct a Gas safety inspection - why would they when its for their own safety? But it happens.

Secondly and very importantly, if you do enter (trespass) the property without the tenants present you can be accused of theft and damage etc while you were there and what could your answer be? This I have seen many times over the years, granny's ring went missing,  my new Versace blouses have disappeared! I'll have to report the theft to the police!

In fact even if the tenant agrees a time and meets you at the door and then changes their mind you will not have access that day.

The only hope is to keep a good relationship with the tenant (why wouldn't we want this anyway?) with their future goodwill in these situations in mind. 

It has to be said that along with the tenant's common law, and in Wales the statutory, right to exclude there is the equal opposite obligation to report issues at the property because if you are not allowed in then how can you attend to these issues? Although the Welsh Act has now taken out the concept of Permissive Waste and Damage in clause 101 of the Act a good Occupation Contract will include contractual obligations to report and any failure to do so with` any deterioration will be the tenants obligation to pay for. 

All of this if taken as the baseline for relations between landlord and tenant just shows consideration for each others situations. In my experience relationships between the parties is usually good until a government interference causes a conflict or causes issues that then cause a conflict.

6. You don't have to care whether your contract holders pay their rent any more!

So the two main issues a landlord may have is the contract holder not paying and then thousands paid out to evict. But these issues are voluntary! You don't have to have any worries about this.

Simply take out Rent Guarantee Insurance and the stress goes away! 

• Nil excess
• £100,000 legal cover to help with evictions including the issue of relevant section notices, property legal disputes, repair and renovation disputes, health & safety investigations and tax investigations
• Rental payments cover up to £5000* (£5000 cover available where 50 or more live policies are in place with us)
• Vacant possession cover at up to 75% of the rental amount for a maximum of 3 months.
• Section notices served
• In-house claims service
• 60-day claim reporting period
• Manage your policies online via an online portal (purchasing, renewing, documents, claims)
• Backed by one of the UK’s largest insurers Aviva

You can purchase cover directly as a standalone policy for £215.00 for the year inclusive of insurance premium tax using the following code - https://www.alanboswell.com/landlord-insurance/rent-guarantee/?utm_source=1335

As they say - Don't let your home without it!

 

Regaining Possession in Wales - no small task

So when all else fails and the contract holder does not cooperate and there's nowhere else to go we end up in a possession case in the courts.

So the first thing we do is check if we have all our ducks in a row before even thinking about notices etc.

• Rent Smart Wales registration correct - names etc
• Rent Smart Wales licensing correct - agent or personal?
• Is the deposit protected and was it protected properly from the start? 
• If we had an assured shorthold tenancy with the tenants was a written statement of conversion served?
• Do we have a renewal contract?
• Has a notice already been served and not used?
• Is there an EICR, Gas safety, EPC
• Has a tenants guide been served?
• Are the smoke detectors installed?
• I there a Co detector at the property?
• Can we prove that all the above have been received by the contract holder?

So at the barefoot landlord we provide a set up service to get the case ready to move forward at a cost of a cup of coffee in order that you can move forward to the next stage with confidence and full knowledge of your case.

Most of the above can be remedied late but will attract fines as they are being remedied. But then we can progress to notice service. Do we serve -

• RHW16
• RHW20
• RHW38

We have a relationship with possession specialists who can take the case forward once it has been packaged and at set charges. They can serve notices, take court action for possession, instruct bailiffs including High Court bailiffs, and chase any debts involved with the case afterwards for the landlord. 

Let hope in the future your lettings do not have to go down this road but it's possible that some existing contracts have to be ended and then using the systems on this blog a new relationship can be fostered with your new contract holders.