Abolition of the Right to Buy and Associated Rights (Wales) Act 2018

Duty to provide tenants and prospective tenants with information

8 Information for tenants and prospective tenants

(1) The Welsh Ministers must, within one month of the coming into force of this section—

(a) prepare a document containing information that they consider will assist tenants and prospective tenants to understand the effect of this Act, and

(b) publish the information on a website maintained on their behalf.

(2) The Welsh Ministers must also, within one month of the coming into force of this section, take all reasonable steps to provide a copy of the information to—

(a) every qualifying landlord;

(b) any bodies appearing to the Welsh Ministers to represent the interests of tenants in Wales;

(c) any bodies appearing to the Welsh Ministers to represent the interests of local housing authorities;

(d) any bodies appearing to the Welsh Ministers to represent the interests of registered social landlords;

(e) any other bodies the Welsh Ministers consider appropriate.

(3) The information must, in particular, include the following—

(a) the date on which the right to buy and the right to acquire will cease to be exercisable in relation to certain dwellings by virtue of section 121ZA of the Housing Act 1985 (c. 68) and section 16B of the Housing Act 1996 (c. 52),

(b) the date on which the right to buy and the right to acquire will cease to exist in Wales, and

(c) any other information that the Welsh Ministers consider would assist tenants and prospective tenants to understand the effect of this Act.

(4) Every qualifying landlord must, within two months of the coming into force of this section or, if earlier, within one month of having received a copy of the information published by the Welsh Ministers under subsection (1)—

(a) provide all its relevant tenants with such of the information as it considers to be relevant to them (which must, in particular, include the information mentioned in subsection (3)(a) and (b)),

(b) publish such of the information as it considers to be relevant to its tenants and prospective tenants on its website (which must, in particular, include the information mentioned in subsection (3)(a) and (b)), and

(c) secure that a copy of the information published in accordance with paragraph (b) is available for inspection (without charge) at such places as it considers appropriate.

(5) Subsection (6) applies where, after the day on which this section comes into force—

(a) a person offers to let a dwelling in Wales under a secure tenancy or an introductory tenancy, or

(b) a person who is a registered social landlord or a private registered provider of social housing offers to let a dwelling in Wales under an assured tenancy (other than a long tenancy).

(6) The person making the offer (the “prospective landlord”) must, as soon as is reasonably practicable after the offer is made, provide the prospective tenant with such of the information published by the Welsh Ministers under subsection (1) as the prospective landlord considers relevant to the prospective tenant (which must, in particular, include the information mentioned in subsection (3)(a) and (b)).

(7) In making arrangements for the purposes of providing information under subsections (4)(a) and (6), a landlord or prospective landlord must—

(a) have regard to the likely needs and characteristics, in respect of the provision of information, of persons to whom the information in question is to be provided, and

(b) consider whether, having regard to those needs and characteristics, it is appropriate to provide any of the information to any of those persons otherwise than in the way in which it would normally be provided.

(8) In this section—

(a) “local housing authority” means the council of a county or county borough in Wales;

(b) “qualifying landlord”means—

(i) a landlord that lets a dwelling in Wales under a secure tenancy;

(ii) a registered social landlord;

(iii) a private registered provider of social housing that lets a dwelling in Wales (see section 80(3) of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (c. 17));

(c) “relevant tenant” means—

(i) a tenant who has a secure tenancy, an introductory tenancy or a demoted tenancy of a dwelling in Wales, if that tenancy existed on the day on which this section came into force;

(ii) in relation to a registered social landlord or a private registered provider of social housing only, a tenant who has an assured tenancy of a dwelling in Wales (other than a long tenancy), if that tenancy existed on the day on which this section came into force;

(d) “secure tenancy”, “introductory tenancy” and “long tenancy” have the same meaning as in the Housing Act 1985;

(e) “registered social landlord” means a body registered in the register maintained under section 1 of the Housing Act 1996;

(f) “assured tenancy” has the same meaning as in the Housing Act 1988 (c. 60) (and includes an assured shorthold tenancy);

(g) “demoted tenancy” means a tenancy to which section 143A of the Housing Act 1996 applies.