Eviction notice periods to rise to 6 months in Wales

On the 1^st of December 2022 the new Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 came into force and with it comes a large number of changes to the way residential properties are rented in Wales. The changes include a move from Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreements to Occupation Contracts and a tenant will be referred to as a Contract Holder. As such any new rental which starts on or after the 1^st December 2022 will need to follow all the new rules laid out in the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2022. For tenancies that existed before the 1^st of December 2022 there needs to be a conversion from an Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement to an Occupation Contract and, in effect this change happens automatically on the 1^st of December. There are some special rules around converted contracts to avoid excessive changes to the terms and conditions of the original ASTs. We will take a look at some of these special rules in this article focusing specifically on eviction notices.

New Eviction rules

Under the new legislation section 21 notices will be replaced by section 173 notices. The law requires that eviction notices cannot be served within the fixed term of the occupation contract and then must have a minimum notice period of 6 months. Under Schedule 12 of the new act the legislation around converting existing tenancies to new occupation contracts is set out. Under this schedule the eviction notice periods defined under section 21 notices of 2 months were set to stay in force for the converted contracts. This means that occupation contracts which were converted from existing assured Shorthold Tenancy agreements could legally continue with 2 month notice periods rather than the 6 months set out in the new Legislation for new occupation contracts.

Consultation

In September 2022 the Welsh Government sent out a consultation to essentially overturn the schedule 12 conversion arrangements and to look at implementing the 6 month notice period even for converted contracts and that this change would take effect 6 months after the introduction of the new occupation contracts on the 1^st December 2022, essentially the 1^st June 2023. This consultation ran from the 20^th September until the 24^th October 2022. At the end of the consultation the Welsh Government, in the summary of responses report stated its intention to go ahead with the proposals and that it would “seek to amend the 2016 Act so that a six-month no-fault notice period applies to converted periodic standard contract from 1 June 2023. The regulation making this amendment will be subject to approval by the Senedd”.

Senedd Debate

In a statement on the 10^th of November 2022 Julie James, Minister for Climate Change announced that she had laid new Regulations before the Senedd for debate. These Regulations would alter the schedule 12 conversion exemptions to the 6 months notice period. This was discussed and then passed to the Senedd for debate, which took place and was voted on on the 29^th November 2022. The results of the vote were that the proposals be accepted and put into law. The results of the vote can be seen here. As such, with the amended Regulations being agreed by the Senedd converted contracts will, from June the 1^st 2023 have to carry a 6 month eviction notice period.