Since 23 November 2015, the legal obligation for all Landlords operating in Wales is to register in order to comply with the law.
In order to register a landlord must provide accurate and up-to-date information about themselves and their rental properties in Wales.
This requirement comes from Part 1 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014
Do you own a property in Wales that you don’t live in?
Do you allow someone else to live in that property (as their main residence), and do they pay you money to live there?
Is the property rented on an assured, assured shorthold or regulated tenancy?
If you answer yes to these questions you are a landlord and need to comply with the registration requirements in Wales.
For more information read here.
You can register as a landlord through this website; you simply need to create an account and work through the on-line process. A landlord must complete the registration themselves; an agent or another person who is not the landlord cannot do it on their behalf. Apply Now
If you are a self-managing landlord you will also need to apply for a licence. To find out more read the Landlord Licensing section.
Each application has either an Online Fee or a Paper Fee, depending on the method of application. All registrations and licences are valid for five years from the date of issue / approval.
Registrations are split into two application types – new registration and renewal.
To take advantage of the renewal fee, the landlord must apply for renewal within the 84 days before the registration expires. If a landlord has an existing registration but allows it to expire, this will attract the new registration fee and not the renewal fee.
Please refer to the Rent Smart Wales website at www.rentsmart.gov.wales to view the latest Rent Smart Wales fee policy, available on the resources page.
The latest Fee Policy of October 2020 states:
New Registration Fee: Online Application £45/Paper Application £84
Renewal Registration Fee: Online Application £36/Paper Application £67.20
A landlord must include the address of all rental property in Wales they are the landlord for in their registration. This will be the address of all dwellings (buildings, or part of a building, occupied as a separate dwelling) which are subject to, or marketed or offered for let under a domestic occupation contract. Only dwellings rented on assured, assured shorthold or regulated occupation contracts are required to be part of the register. These are the main types of occupation contracts used to rent out properties privately in Wales.
A landlord’s registration lasts 5 years after which time they must re-register. During the registered period a landlord must keep the information within it up to date. By law, certain changes in information must be notified.
These are:
If a landlord acquires another property subject to, or marketed or offered for let under a domestic tenancy in Wales they are obliged to add it to their registration. A landlord has 28 days to do this within.
Failure to register or providing false or misleading information on your registration is an offence which could lead to:
To view the Rent Smart Wales Enforcement Policy, please visit www.rentsmart.gov.wales for more information
Licence conditions and the Code of Practice
Every licence is issued with a set of conditions that a landlord or agent must follow. Failure to abide by these conditions puts a licence at risk of revocation.
These conditions set out the things that must be done to maintain a licence over its 5 year duration. Sometimes, bespoke conditions and deadlines are applied to deal with specific concerns.
Compliance with the Code of Practice is a condition attached to every licence. This document lists all the legal requirements that licensees must comply with at every milestone throughout a tenancy.
Agents usually have additional conditions to demonstrate that they have the following safeguards in place:
