#ExpertView: Wales Fees Ban to come into force in September 2019

The Renting Homes (Fees etc) (Wales) Bill was debated for a final time in the plenary last month. It is currently awaiting Royal Assent, after which it will become an Act.

The legislation will prohibit letting agents and landlords in Wales to charge tenants anything other than permitted payments. Permitted payments include rent, security deposits, holding deposits, utilities, communication services, council tax, and green deal charges.

Since the Bill was formally introduced by the Welsh Government last year, the RLA has been very active in its progression.

The RLA’s Director for Wales, Douglas Haig, gave evidence on the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Bill to the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee, in the Senedd during the early stages of the Bill.

As well as making a formal response to a consultation on the Bill, the RLA has met with several Assembly Members (AMs) to discuss the details of the Bill.  Earlier this year, the RLA encouraged members to write to their AMs about the amendments to the bill. You can read a timeline of the RLA’s involvement in the progression of the Bill here. 

The announcement comes with less than two months to go until the Tenant Fees Act comes into force in England, on 1st June.  Landlords with properties in England can read the RLA’s guidance on the Tenant Fees Act here. 

TDS will provide updates on how the Welsh Tenant Fees Ban legislation will affect tenancy deposit protection at upcoming industry events in Wales. 

The Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) has recently become the first tenancy deposit protection scheme to introduce a range of free, online tools to help landlords and agents comply with incoming Tenant Fees Ban and Deposit Cap legislation in England.  Click here to sign up to receive alerts when we learn new developments of the legislation.    

TDS has joined forces with the Residential Landlords Association to create DepositGuard, offering the cheapest Insured tenancy deposit scheme rates on the market.  For further details of the options available, visit our Join for Landlords page.

About the author

Victoria Barker is the Communications Officer for the RLA. She is responsible for producing articles for their Campaigns and News Centre, the weekly E-News newsletter and media review, and creating social media content. She also contributes to their members magazine, Residential Property Investor.

About RLA 

RLA has over 30,000 members nationwide, with a combined portfolio of over a quarter of a million properties. Home to a growing community of landlords, the RLA delivers day-to-day support, expert advice and government campaigning, plus a range of high-quality services relevant to their landlord’s needs. 

About TDS

Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) is a Government-approved scheme for the protection of tenancy deposits; TDS offers both Insured and Custodial protection and also provides fair adjudication for disputes that arise over the tenancy deposits that we protect.

We provide invaluable training in tenancy deposit protection and disputes for agents and landlords through the TDS Academy as well as joining with MOL to provide the Technical Award in Residential Tenancy Deposits.

TDS Insured Scheme: where a TDS member can hold the tenancy deposits as stakeholder during the term of the tenancy.

TDS Custodial Scheme: where TDS hold the deposit for the duration of the tenancy.

TDS Academy: TDS provides property professionals with invaluable training in tenancy deposit protection and tenancy deposit disputes.

TDS Northern Ireland: TDS is Northern Ireland's leading and only not for profit tenancy deposit protection scheme.

TDS can only comment on the process for our scheme, other deposit protection schemes may have a different process/require different steps. Content is correct at the time of writing.

These views are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the view of TDS, its officers and employees.