New Welsh holding deposit requirements 13th December

New Welsh holding deposit requirements 13th December

11:12 AM, 20th November 2019, About 5 years ago 1

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As of December 13th 2019 under The Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Specified Information) (Wales) Regulations 2019 before a holding deposit is paid to a landlord or letting agent the following information must be provided to a prospective tenant:

– The amount of holding deposit

– Identify the dwelling in respect of which the deposit is paid

– Name, address, telephone number and any e-mail address of the landlord (and if instructed, the letting agent)

– Nature and duration of the contract

– Proposed occupation date

– Amount of rent or other consideration

– Rental period

– Any proposed additional contract terms or proposed modifications or exclusions to fundamental or supplementary terms

– Amount of any security deposit

– Whether a guarantor is required and, if so, any relevant conditions

– Reference checks the landlord (or letting agent) will undertake

– Information the landlord or letting agent requires from the prospective contract-holder

The above information must be provided to a prospective contract-holder in writing and may be given in person or sent either by post or provided by electronic means if the prospective contract-holder consents to receiving it electronically.

David Cox, Chief Executive, ARLA Propertymark said: “Once again, the Welsh Government is changing the law with little notice. Agents only have 19 days to put this into practice. We will be preparing a short factsheet and template for members to use in the coming days and we will publish this as soon as possible.”


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Luke P

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9:20 AM, 21st November 2019, About 5 years ago

It's not as though there weren't previously pitfalls to taking a holding deposit but for the few people that did bother, this has well and truly made them practically unworkable. That also means there's no requirement to hold out the 15(?) days for a tenant to successfully enter a tenancy (stringing out the void period) and the LL can, should they so desire, at last second, give the property to someone else. All sounds great in theory...

Seriously, what advantage is there in real terms to taking a holding deposit? It's limited to a week's rent (wow) and is returned upon tenancy creation. But as I mentioned, 'buys' the tenant a 15 day window for the price of seven days rent.

Keep your holding deposits, I say!

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