The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (RHWA) came into effect on 1st December 2022. This legislation has been the largest change to tenancy law in a Welsh context for decades. It has fundamentally changed terminology relating to tenancy law replacing tenancy agreements with occupation contacts with tenants now referred to as contract holders. There are now just two landlord types, community landlords (primarily local authorities and registered social landlords) and private landlords (all other landlords).  To assist with the administration of RHWA the Welsh government has provided model occupation contracts and standardised forms for landlords to use when ending tenancies, addressing breaches to occupation contracts and forms specifically related to converted occupation contracts.

The RHWA has removed the terminology around tenancy agreement and tenant replacing it with contract and contract holder. However, even though legally the terms have changed contract holders largely prefer to be referred to as tenants. As a result, the term tenant and contract holder are used interchangeably. However, in legal correspondence the correct term must be contract holder.

The RHWA also places landlords into two specific groups. A community landlord is a registered social landlord, a local authority or housing association. A private landlord is any landlord that is not a community landlord. The type of landlord will specify the type of occupation contract they can issue.

These chapters provide an overview of the key elements of RHWA. Within each chapter will be links to the model documents provided by Welsh government or the relevant court notice pages. We hope these chapters provide you with the knowledge needed to navigate RHWA.