One of the UK’s largest tenancy law training providers has come up with a unique solution to help busy Welsh landlords navigate the new tenancy rules, but warned there are only a few months left to take advantage.

On 1 December, the Residential Leases Act underwent its most significant revision in many years with the introduction of the Residential Leases (Wales) Act 2016.

The new law, which has been hotly debated and delayed, replaces several complex pieces of existing legislation and case law.

The most significant change is that landlords must provide tenants (or ‘lessees’) with a written statement setting out the terms of the tenancy agreement.

More relevantly, contracts that existed before December 1st are now called “converted contracts” and the owner must provide a written statement by the end of May 2023, just three months later.

This written declaration is significantly more complex because it recognizes the existence of existing agreements that conflict with the new rules.

It goes without saying that landlords in Wales are understandably concerned about the new law and what it will mean for them.

“Theft of valuable time from owners”



Training for Professionals Managing Director David d’Orton Gibson

This is where Training for Professionals (TFP) can help. Established in 1993, it works with hundreds of agents and landlords across Wales and has an almost unique perspective on the challenges faced by these new developments.

Managing Director David d’Orton Gibson, who has worked in the industry for over 30 years, explained: “Time is money and the Act risks depriving owners of valuable time.

“This new law completely changes the way landlords and tenants rent properties.

“It is very important that the new legislation requires each contract owner to provide a written statement setting out the terms of the rental/lease agreement.

“This declaration is a mixture of the content defined by law and the conditions agreed by the parties at the time of conclusion of the contract.

“Not only must this be provided in advance, but if a later change is agreed upon, perhaps a rent increase, the contract holder must be provided with an updated statement.

“For employment contracts that come into force from December 1 of last year, the landlord only has 14 days to present this declaration, under penalty of the contract holder not having to pay rent for up to two months.

“As you can imagine, with an average rent of around £800, it could be a huge blow to what could have been an innocent mistake.”

a huge amount of work

So it wasn’t long before the experienced team at TFP realized that they needed to find an easier way to create written presentations for converted contracts.

David said: “We prepared the employment contracts for December 1st and were very familiar with leases before then.

“So we were happy to provide written statements to two users of our rental, but despite all our experience, we found that it took them two weeks of extensive manual work to do this.

“Even so, users had a lot to do, as we were not aware of any changes and special clauses, such as not being able to hang clothes on the balcony or parking in a certain area. Therefore, users had to edit a lot and compare with previous rentals.

“If two properties were leased on two different leases, perhaps because two different lease providers were used, you must redo all of your homework for each lease.

“Our experience is that it can take many hours to try and figure everything out, but there are still lawsuits over final provisions because it’s not always clear whether a provision is inconsistent.

“Once we realized how much work this was causing us, we started looking for a better way of doing things.”

Intuitive and complete solution



“We believe we have a solution to significantly reduce the work required to deliver these written submissions in a very cost-effective manner.”

They soon came up with the idea of ​​creating a “universal written statement” that could be used with any converted lease or license, whether managed or leased property.

David said, “We believe we have a solution to significantly reduce the work required to deliver these written submissions in a very cost-effective manner.

“Our Universal Written Declaration is an intuitive and comprehensive answer that simplifies the creation of written declarations for converted contracts, saving landlords time and money.

“Instead of spending a week or more creating an individual written statement, they can simply use our universal package of written statements to complete the task in a fraction of the time.

“All they have to do is add the rent to the universal written statement and include a copy of the previous tenancy agreement.

“We think this is a completely unique approach and we see it as a great benefit to all landlords and agents in Wales.

“It is very exciting to know that we are helping to reduce the workload and creating real opportunities for them to earn more.”

To know more?

If you need help preparing written presentations for converted contracts, contact Mark Thomson in Professional Training on 01258 85 85 85, email [email protected] or visit the website.