Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016

Structure of the Act

27. The Act has 11 Parts. Some Parts are relevant to all occupation contracts, and some are relevant only to specific kinds of contract. As sections 5 and 6 set out, the Act can be approached in the following way:

a.

Part 1 provides an overview of the Act, intended to assist with navigation;

b.

Part 2 concerns the determination of whether a person has an occupation contract with his or her landlord, and if so, what kind of occupation contract it is;

c.

Part 3 applies to all occupation contracts, so will be relevant to everyone who rents their home under an occupation contract (it deals with a wide range of rights and obligations of contract-holders and landlords);

d.

Part 4 concerns the duties of landlords in relation to repair and maintenance of dwellings – Chapter 2, which contains those duties, applies to all occupation contracts except fixed term standard contracts for a term of seven years or more, so in practice the key provisions in Part 4 will apply to most occupation contracts;

e.

Part 5 applies only to secure contracts (and, by extension, is not relevant to standard contracts) – it addresses a range of miscellaneous issues;

f.

Part 6 applies only to periodic standard contracts (and, by extension, is not relevant to secure contracts and fixed term standard contracts) – it addresses a range of miscellaneous issues;

g.

Part 7 applies only to fixed term standard contracts (and, by extension, is not relevant to secure contracts and periodic standard contracts) – it addresses a range of miscellaneous issues;

h.

Part 8 applies only to supported standard contracts – these are standard contracts (either periodic or fixed term) which concern the provision of accommodation to people in need of particular kinds of help or assistance;

i.

Part 9 concerns how occupation contracts can be brought to an end – various Chapters of this Part apply to all occupation contracts, but a number of Chapters apply only to certain kinds of contract (the table in section 147 provides an overview of Part 9);

j.

finally, Parts 10 and 11 deal which a range of miscellaneous matters which are supplementary to the provision in the preceding Parts, or which concern the operation and interpretation of the Act.