Rural Estates Newsletter February 2023 - Flipbook - Page 16
5 – Welsh occupation contracts: buyers beware!
When is the earliest vacant possession can be obtained, if required?
Interestingly, the Act does not entirely abolish so-called “no-fault” evictions (familiar
in the form of s.21 notices for Housing Act 1988 tenancies), but it does extend the
timescales before landlords can recover possession. For new periodic tenancies, you
must give six months’ notice to terminate the contract (increased from two months) and
are prohibited from serving the notice in the first six months of the term (up from four
months). In contrast, a contract-holder may bring a periodic contract to an end on four
weeks’ notice.
For new fixed term contracts, the earliest you can regain possession under a contractual
landlord’s break clause is two years, as landlords are required to give six months’ notice
and such notice cannot be served in the first 18 months. Transitional rules apply for
converted contracts.
Similar to the English rules for the service of s.21 notices, there are additional restrictions
for serving break notices. Landlords are unable to serve valid notices where they are
in breach of statutory obligations to include the provision of EPCs, gas certificates
or required information in relation to rent deposits. Or where the rules regarding the
provision of written statements have been breached.
Overall, the Act is a new regime and requires a new set of questions to be asked in due
diligence, so buyers beware!
“
There are now 29 standards which must be met
both at the start of the occupation and at all times
throughout it.”
16
Rural Estates Newsletter
February 2023