No-fault Evictions

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 3:08 pm on 17 July 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:08, 17 July 2019

Well, neither of those options, because the Member has entirely forgotten that this Assembly has already passed into law the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. It's a very radical Act, which I'm very proud of. We have not been in a position to implement that Act, unfortunately, because of some arcane issues, which I won't go into because of the time, around the IT systems in the courts, but we have solved that problem now and we are now consulting on the last piece of the jigsaw to bring that Act into force. I'll just remind the Member that it brings in mandatory occupation contracts, making renting more transparent. It introduces the requirement for a dwelling to be fit for human habitation, which I'm particularly proud of, and the benches behind me were very keen on seeing as well. It includes specific requirements for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and electrical safety testing. It provides protection against retaliatory evictions, which is when a landlord evicts a tenant in response to a request for repairs or maintenance. It has a number of other things around the length of the contract and so on, which I won't go into, at the risk of incurring the Llywydd's wrath. We are now consulting on extending the period for ending periodic contracts in Wales, because the shorthold assured tenancies that she mentions will no longer exist in Wales once this Act has gone into force, so we will have mandatory two-year tenancies. So, these restrictions are in a completely different set of legal arrangements to the section 21 notice that she is talking about in the Housing Act 1988. Llywydd, here in Wales, we have moved a long way from there, and we have rebalanced the power relationship between landlords and tenants, and in implementing this Act we will be putting right many of the wrongs that the old housing Act had. We've consulted extensively with the—[Interruption.] We have consulted extensively with the Residential Landlords Association and they are very happy with these arrangements.