Since 23 November 2015, the legal obligation for all Landlords operating in Wales is to register in order to comply with the law.
In order to register a landlord must provide accurate and up-to-date information about themselves and their rental properties in Wales.
This requirement comes from Part 1 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014
Do you own a property in Wales that you don’t live in?
Do you allow someone else to live in that property (as their main residence), and do they pay you money to live there?
Is the property rented on an assured, assured shorthold or regulated tenancy?
If you answer yes to these questions you are a landlord and need to comply with the registration requirements in Wales.
For more information read here.
You can register as a landlord through this website; you simply need to create an account and work through the on-line process. A landlord must complete the registration themselves; an agent or another person who is not the landlord cannot do it on their behalf. Apply Now
If you are a self-managing landlord you will also need to apply for a licence. To find out more read the Landlord Licensing section.
A landlord, for the purpose of the legislation, is the person who is entitled to possession of the property. This in most cases will be the owner of the property.
A landlord who must register therefore could be an individual person, a group of people or even a company (depending on how the property is owned). If the property being registered is in joint ownership, one lead owner must register it on behalf of all other owners. If a property is owned by a company, the company registers as the landlord.
A landlord registration costs £33.50 if completed on-line. This is the cost for each landlord type registering. The cost for registration does not increase if more than one rental property is part of the registration.
If someone requests a paper application form to complete instead of doing the registration on-line it costs £80.50.
A landlord must include the address of all rental property in Wales they are the landlord for in their registration. This will be the address of all dwellings (buildings, or part of a building, occupied as a separate dwelling) which are subject to, or marketed or offered for let under a domestic tenancy. Only dwellings rented on assured, assured shorthold or regulated tenancies are required to be part of the register. These are the main types of tenancies used to rent out properties privately in Wales.
A landlord’s registration lasts 5 years after which time they must re-register. During the registered period a landlord must keep the information within it up to date. By law, certain changes in information must be notified.
These are:
If a landlord acquires another property subject to, or marketed or offered for let under a domestic tenancy in Wales they are obliged to add it to their registration. A landlord has 28 days to do this within.