7th
Dec 2016
There may be many landlords living outside Wales who are not aware of the Rent Smart Wales scheme and if they do rent out 'homes' in Wales then they must enrol. The deadline date was November 23rd so those eligible who have not signed up could face prosecution and fines.
Staff at a property consultant's Cardiff' office believes that it is not necessarily the landlords' fault in failing to register, as there has been a lack of campaigning and marketing outside Wales, coupled with many problems in the online registration process.
Caroline Jones of the Property Consultant, said: "The enforcement powers under Rent Smart Wales are now active. This means failure to comply with the legislation is an offence. However, we know of numerous cases of people living outside of Wales who had no idea on the new Rent Smart scheme. Our fear is that there are many landlords out there who are blissfully unaware of their legal obligation."
She feels that private landlords who manage their properties themselves are particularly at risk, as those who use agents will have been notified of Rent Smart Wales' registration requirement.
Tenants are told that if they have any serious doubts about whether their landlord has enrolled into the scheme, then they should either contact Rent Smart Wales or the landlord themselves.
Caroline added: “One final consideration is how will Rent Smart Wales enforce any fines on those who genuinely didn’t know they had to register. We can see a lot of resistance by those who will claim they didn’t know anything about the scheme.’
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