Tenants hold the key when it comes to enforcement of registration and licensing, say Calum Higgins and Elle McNeil.
We believe tenants have a key role in identifying and reporting unregistered or unlicensed landlords and letting agents. By doing this, tenants will help ensure the new process works and achieves the outcome of improving the private rental market in Wales. However for this to happen we believe greater targeting of tenants is needed in the media and through advertising to raise their awareness of the recent legal changes, as well as the opportunity the online register offers them to actively check and report properties they live in, or are considering living in.
We have been working with Welsh Government and Rent Smart Wales to increase the tenant targeted information and awareness raising work, after our research[1] found a very low level of awareness amongst private rented sector tenants of the difference between Welsh and English housing law, regulation or of Rent Smart Wales. While some progress has hopefully been made since our research, the continued media and advertising emphasis has been on targeting letting agents and landlords.
MORE THAN HALF WAY THERE
The latest Welsh Government dwelling stock estimate there are 207,000 private rented sector households across Wales. Rent Smart Wales figures (as of 24 November) indicate 135,000 properties have been registered, meaning they are more than halfway there. We suspect it is the ‘better half’ – the more informed and professional landlords and letting agents who are members of representative bodies or engaged in local authority networks – as opposed to those whose practice leads to people coming through our doors. This is supported by early indications from some members of the Welsh Local Citizens Advice network who’ve told us that letting agents who they previously supported clients with, due to issues of poor letting and management practice, have chosen to shut up shop rather than get licensed.
The challenge for Rent Smart Wales and local authorities across Wales will be finding the rest of the private rental stock in Wales. Their indication of immediately concentrating on the larger landlords and letting agents means they are likely to be leaving the ‘worst’ till last. It seems that it will be those who are likely to be the least informed about their roles, and those operating under the radar will not be tackled for the time being.
We believe the success of the scheme will be dependent on its enforcement, and tenant awareness of what their rights are. In a perfect scheme, tenants will be the on the ground enforcers who report landlords and agents who don’t comply. If tenants are made aware of the requirements and report non- compliance, Rent Smart Wales and local authorities will need to take action for tenants to have faith in the system, visibly tackling those operating outside of the law.
FIXED PENALTY NOTICES
The first stage for enforcement will be Fixed Penalty Notices, which if paid by the landlord/agent within 21 days, will discharge any liability for the offence. Rent Smart Wales has indicated that Fixed Penalty Notices can and will be issued up to twice prior to pursuing other enforcement options, such as prosecution, Rent Stopping Orders or Rent Repayment Orders.
There are a couple of practical issues that arise with both types of rent orders. First, neither can be applied for by any party until there has been a prosecution for an offence relating to registration or licensing. Second, after a prosecution, tenants, local authorities and/or Rent Smart Wales can apply to the Residential Property Tribunal (RPT) for a Rent Repayment Order, but whether tenants will be aware of this option is unlikely at present, given there is no public information about them on Rent Smart Wales. Local authorities or Rent Smart Wales can also apply for Rent Stopping Orders, but to date there is little information as to how this will work in practice. This is further complicated as a landlord who pays a Fixed Penalty Notices will have discharged the liability for their offence.
With the introduction of Rent Smart Wales and the start of a Wales-wide register of private properties tenants will need clarity on which organisation to contact for different levels of non compliance, such as an environmental health issue may need to be reported to a local authority or Rent Smart Wales. Clarity will be important for tenants to maintain faith in the new scheme and its outcomes. Central to this will be the use of the Code of Practice for Landlords and Agents, a document that must be complied with as a condition of all licences granted. Action against those who don’t follow the code can be taken by local authorities, Rent Smart Wales, or jointly and this document will be central to tenants rights.
INFORMED DECISIONS
Looking to the future, we think there’s room for developing the registration and licence into a more useful tool for tenants seeking private rental housing. Currently tenants can check that their property is registered with Rent Smart Wales, but in the future we would hope that it could also be used by tenants to see other information about their landlord, such as the expiry date of the current gas safe certificate or whether there have been enforcement notices on the property. This would allow tenants to make more informed decisions about renting with landlords or agencies.
Calum Higgins is Welsh law expert and Elle McNeil is policy officer Wales at Citizens Advice Cymru
[1] https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/policy/policy-research-topics/citizens-advice-cymru-wales-policy-research/communicating-changes-in-housing-law-rhoi-gwybod-am-newidiadau-ym-maes-cyfraith-tai/