Rent Smart Wales - When a Landlord Licence is Required.

A landlord will need a licence in addition to registration if the landlord is to carry out any one or more lettings activities which are:

• arranging or conducting viewings with prospective tenants;
• gathering evidence for the purpose of establishing the suitability of prospective tenants (for example, by confirming character references, undertaking credit checks or interviewing a prospective tenant);
• preparing, or arranging the preparation, of a tenancy agreement;
• preparing, or arranging the preparation, of an inventory for the dwelling or schedule of condition for the dwelling.

Further, a landlord will need a licence if the landlord is to carry out any one or more property management activities. Those activities are:

• collecting rent;
• being the principal point of contact for the tenant in relation to matters arising under the tenancy;
• making arrangements with a person to carry out repairs or maintenance;
• making arrangements with a tenant or occupier of the dwelling to secure access to the dwelling for any purpose;
• checking the contents or condition of the dwelling, or arranging for them to be checked;
• serving notice to terminate a tenancy.

As a starting point, all named landlord’s on a tenancy agreement will require a licence because they will be a named contact for the tenancy and may need to serve a notice to terminate the tenancy in the future.

Lettings or property management activities does not include anything done by the landlord which is arranging for an authorised agent to do something on the landlord’s behalf.

Where a landlord never does any one or more of these activities and instead uses a licensed letting agent, the landlord will not require a licence. A licence is only therefore required by ‘self letting or managing landlords’.

It cannot be stressed enough that where a landlord uses a licensed agent, that landlord must not undertake any of those activities themselves without first obtaining a licence. For example, if a landlord wishes to make arrangements with a person to carry out repairs or maintenance at a time whilst the dwelling is subject to a domestic tenancy, a licence will first be required. Otherwise it will be an offence. It’s acceptable for the landlord to arrange with a licensed agent to get the repair or maintenance done though.

It seems the landlord should be able to carry out the physical repair or maintenance themselves (subject to any law governing the repair or maintenance) because the restriction defined in property management activities is for making arrangements with a person to carry out the repair or maintenance. In this case the agent must arrange access with the tenant though.

It’s okay for an unlicensed landlord to make arrangements for repairs and maintenance when the tenancy has come to an end without a licence because the dwelling will not at that time be subject to a domestic tenancy. However, despite the tenancy being at an end, the landlord must not check the contents or condition of the dwelling, or arrange for them to be checked, for any purpose connected with the previous tenancy without a licence. A similar provision applies for agents, the effect being that only a licensed landlord or agent will ever be able to determine the return of a deposit after the end of a tenancy.

If a property has been recently purchased with an intention to rent it out, a licence must be applied for within 28 days from when the property has been assigned to the landlord.

Exemption

If a property has been purchased with an existing tenant in place and the owner does not intend to continue renting to the tenant and intends to occupy the property as their home, the owner does not need a licence if they take steps to recover possession within 28 days from when it was assigned to them and as long as they “continue to diligently pursue the recovery of possession”. As with registration, advice should be sought in this situation because failure to have a licence could seriously affect possession. It might be a better solution to pass management of the property (including serving possession notices) to a licensed agent.

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