- 24/11/2016
- Posted by: Mike Hedges MS
- Category: Press Releases
Mike Hedges AM welcomes news that Rent Smart Wales will protect tenants and raise standards
Rent Smart Wales will help raise standards in the private rented sector, Welsh Labour’s Communities Secretary Carl Sargeant has said.
Mike said…. ‘This is very good news for tenants who now have protection from rogue landlords. The new act will ensure that landlords have to be registered, passing a fit person test. This should ensure that some of the horror stories of landlords letting properties in terrible states of repair should be a thing of the past.’
From tomorrow, Rent Smart Wales will mean that enforcement action can be taken against landlords and agents who are unregistered or unlicensed, bringing benefits for landlords and tenants.
The Welsh Labour Government’s Housing (Wales) Act 2014 included ground-breaking legislation designed to improve the private rented sector through the mandatory registration and licensing of all private landlords and agents. Registration will identify, for the first time, private landlords who let properties and where those properties are. Licensing includes a fit and proper person test and training for those who directly let and manage properties. Ensuring landlords and agents are fully aware of their responsibilities raises standards and makes the sector a more attractive proposition.
96% of those attending the training sessions have said it would make them better landlords. There are an estimated 70,000 – 130,000 private landlords in Wales.
