Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016
The standalone Welsh statute (commenced 1 December 2022) that replaced the assured / assured shorthold / common-law regime in Wales with two new contract types: Standard Contract (private rented sector default) and Secure Contract (mainly social housing). Different from England’s framework: notice is six months under a no-fault Section 173 (Wales’ equivalent of Section 21), Written Statement of Contract is mandatory within 14 days, and the Renters Rights Act 2025 does NOT apply in Wales. LetCompliance is England-only; Welsh landlords need a Wales-specific compliance product.
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Related terms
Immigration Act 2014
The Act that created Right to Rent, requiring landlords in England to check every adult occupier has the legal right to rent in the UK. Penalties for failing to check or for knowingly renting to someone disqualified can reach £20,000 per tenant or a criminal offence.
Rent Repayment Order (RRO)
A First-tier Tribunal order requiring a landlord to repay up to 12 months’ rent (24 months under the Renters Rights Act 2025 for some offences) for specified housing offences: unlicensed HMO, breach of selective licensing, illegal eviction, harassment, failure to comply with an Improvement Notice or Banning Order. Sought by the tenant or, separately, by the local council. Triggered without needing a criminal conviction — the tribunal applies the criminal standard of proof to the underlying offence, then orders repayment.
Additional Licensing
A discretionary HMO licensing scheme a council can introduce under section 56 of the Housing Act 2004 to cover smaller HMOs that fall below the mandatory five-person, three-storey threshold. It is separate from selective licensing (which covers all rented homes in a designated area, not just HMOs). Operating an unlicensed HMO where additional licensing applies is a criminal offence with civil penalties up to £30,000 and exposure to a Rent Repayment Order of up to 24 months’ rent.
Article 4 Direction
A planning tool councils use under article 4 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015 to remove permitted-development rights, most commonly the right to convert a single-family home (Use Class C3) into a small HMO (Use Class C4) without planning permission. In an Article 4 area, every C3 → C4 conversion needs a full planning application, and operating without it can trigger an enforcement notice, a planning contravention notice or a refusal of HMO licence.
Awaab's Law
Provisions extending to the private rented sector under the Renters Rights Act 2025 that set strict timescales for landlords to investigate and remedy hazards such as damp and mould. Named after Awaab Ishak. Breach can lead to tenant compensation and enforcement by the local housing authority.
Banning Order
A court order under Part 2 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 banning a person convicted of certain housing offences from letting property, engaging in lettings agency work or holding an HMO licence. Triggered by a banning-order offence (Schedule 1 of the Act): includes serious housing-condition offences, illegal eviction and unlawful HMO operation. A banned landlord is added to the national database of rogue landlords and breach of the order is itself a criminal offence with up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment.