Matt Kennedy reports on the vital role of the private rented sector in tackling homelessness. Matt was writing up a session featuring Rent Smart Wales at TAI 2017
There can be no doubting that the role of the private rented sector in Wales is substantial in tackling a range of issues. Under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 places greater emphasis on utilising and working with the private rented sector in Wales address homelessness.
This has to date, culminated in the creation of Rent Smart Wales – which now oversees the registration and licensing of private landlords in Wales. Bethan Jones from RSW explains there are significant benefits to this, where registration is leading to a clearer picture of how the PRS looks in Wales – including the profile of landlords and the location of properties.
Bethan highlighted the code of practice for landlords and agents – it sets out what a landlord or agent needs to do before letting, setting up a tenancy, managing a tenancy and ending a tenancy. Compliance with the code is a condition of gaining a licence.
Jennie Bibbings from Shelter Cymru highlighted that landlord licensing was an unpopular policy when initially drafted and placed in the bill. Concerns were that this would disproportionately impact smaller landlords – however this, as casework revealed, was the area where training and guidance would be most beneficial.
A joint study completed between Shelter Cymru and British Gas revealed:
– 49k tenants had experience landlords entering without permission in the last year
– 22k tenants had experienced threats from their landlords
– Almost 18k tenants revealed they were letting from a rouge landlord.
Jennie highlighted the important of ensuring tenants fully engage and are aware of the code of practice as a means of understanding their rights and holding their landlord accountable for complying with the code.
Joy closed the presentation by reflecting on views from case workers and managers within local authorities. Experience showed that people liked that landlords could no apply to evict unless they were registered. This potentially allowed for more time to bring in mediation or make a planned move, and has been utilised as an opportunity to engage landlords with the scheme.
So in this sense it increases communication, whilst providing that additional protection to tenants. But in contrast it can slow down securing a tenancy. Some people could perceive it as a barrier and it can just delay the landlord inevitably serving notice in some cases. And some anecdotal evidence that landlords are selling up in the face of the need to become registered and licensed.
Over and above this informative session, delegates had an interesting discussion with some reflecting that there was a perception RSW was on the side of tenants. And that private landlords often struggle to know how and where to make referrals on behalf of people where support needs have been identified.
The session demonstrated that we’ve come a very long way in Wales in quite a short space of time in engaging and working with the PRS. Although what’s even clearer is that there’s still a long way to go in processing applications, communicating information about the scheme to the public and ensuring the guidance is well recognised by tenants and landlords alike.