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Rent Smart Wales, what is it?

Rent Smart Wales, also known as RSW, is currently administered from the offices of Cardiff Council.

Cardiff processes the registration of agents and landlords under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014.

Registration of agents and landlords under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 will not be processed by other local authorities in Wales; this has been centralised (Cardiff) to save costs and increase efficiency.

Rent Smart Wales – Landlords Accreditation Wales transfer?

On March 29th, RSW transferred all of the training records and information for nearly 4,500 Landlord Accreditation Wales (LAW) members to the Rent Smart Wales system.

In this process, RSW either created a personal user account on the RSW website or updated an existing one. Within your user account, you can complete a Landlord Registration, License as a Landlord/Agent, and book or complete training.

Why has Rent Smart Wales done this?

RSW has transferred this information to their Rent Smart Wales system to make the transition easier for RSW Landlord Accreditation Wales (LAW) members.

With the new law that landlords and agents in Wales must comply with, RSW wishes to help people who previously signed up to LAW transition into the new legal system. RSW has done this by migrating most of the information you provided when you signed up to LAW into your Rent Smart Wales user account.

This user account also includes a record of the training that LAW members attended when they were initially accredited, allowing them to qualify for a Licence without having to repeat that training; they may only need to complete an online top-up to let them know all about the new Housing (Wales) Act 2014.

What do I need to do?

Landlord—If you are a Landlord in Wales, you must register your properties. You can do this via the RSW website in your user account.

When you log into your account, you can create a new registration and then apply for a Landlord Licence if you are responsible for managing your properties.

You may also need to complete a training top-up to qualify for your Licence.

If you are a Landlord or an employee of a landlord who completed training with LAW before August 6, 2015, you must complete the free online top-up course “Part 1 of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014: An Overview”.

You can book this now by accessing your Training Record in your user account.

Please note that the online top-ups are only free for the first three months for LAW members (until June 29, 2016).

If you completed LAWs training on or after 6 August 2015, your training record is sufficient for your Licence.

Your training course will include all the information about the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, so you will not need to complete further top-up training courses.

Agent—If you are an Agent or the employee of an Agent instructed by a Landlord to carry out letting/management work for a rental property in Wales, you will need to apply for an Agent Licence.

You can complete this via your user account on the Rent Smart Wales website.

You must also complete a top-up training to qualify for your licence.

As an Agent, you will always need to complete the free online “Supplementary Agent Development Training Course”.

You can book this now by accessing your Training Record in your user account.

I have received an email from Rent Smart Wales.

If the RSW has created a new user account for you during the transfer, you will now have received an email.

This email informs you that you now have a user account.

Please confirm your username for Rent Smart Wales. In most cases, this will be the same username and password you used for the Landlord Accreditation Wales website.

If another user has already taken your username, the email will tell you the new one you have been allocated.

This email also contains a website link, allowing you to log in. Once logged in, you can access everything described above via your user account.

What if I don’t have an email address?

If you do not have an email address or did not input one into the LAW website, Rent Smart Wales cannot send you your login details by email.

Instead, Rent Smart Wales will send you the information in the post. This may also mean you must complete the Registration and Licensing forms on paper.

Please get in touch with Rent Smart Wales to let Them know if you need these sent out as well.

If you have an email address and want to access the website online, contact RSW on 03000 133344.

They can add this to your account and send you an email allowing you access.

I already have an account with Rent Smart Wales, so my training record has not been automatically transferred over. What do I need to do?

If you have previously created a user account with Rent Smart Wales, RSW will not create a duplicate account for you.

RSW has been keeping track of Landlord Accreditation Wales members who have created Rent Smart Wales user accounts, and it has tried not to include any of those in the transfer.

RSW will manually go into your account and upload your training record.

Once this is done, RSW will let you know, and you can continue with the process by applying for a Licence or completing the necessary top-ups.

If you have already created a user account but also received an email from us about a new account, RSW may have missed your account in their crosschecks.

If you contact Rent Smart Wales to let Them know, They will be able to merge your training record with the original user account you created. Once this is done, They will let you know, and you can complete any top-ups and applications you need.

How do I register, and what do I have to do?

The cheapest and easiest way to register is online. You can do this through the Rent Smart Wales website. First, you must create an account on the website, and then you will be guided through the registration process.

Before you start, you will need the following things:

If you are an individual landlord

If you are part of a joint landlord arrangement

If you are a company/charity landlord

If you are a trustee for a rental property in Wales

If you are an individual landlord:

The registration will ask for your name, date of birth, correspondence details, and the full address of each rental property in Wales for which you are the landlord.

It is best to have the postcode of your rentals to help you input the correct details in the online form. To complete your registration, you must pay the landlord fee of £33.50+, which can be made online.

If you complete your registration using the paper form, the fee is £80.50+, and you can pay over the phone.

Once you have completed your registration, you will receive confirmation and a unique registration number.

If you self-manage registered rentals, you must apply for a landlord licence. The ‘How to obtain a landlord licence’ section explains this process.

If anyone other than you undertakes any letting or management work at one of your rental properties in Wales, they are called an agent and will need to become licensed.

Letting and property management work includes, for instance, marketing and setting up a domestic tenancy with new tenants (often termed let-only services) or managing a tenancy for you.

Read the full definition of letting and management work here.

You must declare any agent you instruct on your registration against the rental address they let or manage. This agent must apply for a licence.

It is best to have your agent’s full details (including full trading name, e-mail address, and licence number if they already have one) to put their correct details on your registration.

If you are part of a joint landlord arrangement:

The registration will ask you to identify yourself as the lead landlord for registration purposes.

You will then have to provide your name, date of birth, correspondence details, and the name and date of birth of the other joint landlords.

You will also have to provide the full address of each rental property in Wales you jointly own.

It is best to have the rental postcodes to help you input the correct details on the online form.

You must then pay the landlord fee of £33.50+ to complete your registration. Payment can be made online.

If you complete your registration using the paper form, the fee is £80.50+, and you can pay over the phone.

Once you have completed the registration, you will receive confirmation and a unique registration number for the joint landlord arrangement.

If you self-manage any rentals you register, you will need to apply for a licence. To learn more about this process, read the Rent Smart Wales ‘how to obtain a landlord licence’ section on their website.

Suppose a joint landlord who is not the lead landlord for registration purposes does any letting or management activities at a property on the register. In that case, they must separately obtain a landlord licence.

The lead landlord must declare this licensable landlord in the registration against any rental address they act at.

Suppose anyone else, other than the registering landlord (or another joint landlord) undertakes any letting or management work at one of your rental properties in Wales.

In that case, they are called an agent, and they will need to become licensed.

Letting and property management work is doing things like marketing and setting up the tenancy with new tenants (often termed let-only services) or managing a tenancy for you. Read the full definition of letting and management work here.

You must declare any agent you instruct on your registration against the rental address they act at.

This agent must apply for a licence. It is best to have your agent’s full details (including full trading name, e-mail address, and licence number if they already have one) in order to put their correct details on your registration.

If you are a company/charity landlord:

Suppose you are part of a company/charity that is a landlord.

In that case, you must complete the registration by providing the company/charity details, including any Companies House or other relevant Registration number.

Otherwise, you work through the process as if you are an individual named person.

If you are a trustee for a rental property in Wales:

If the property is owned in trust, one trustee can register the property under the collective name of the trust.

I am part of a joint landlord arrangement – how do RSW go about registering?

Joint landlords register through one registration. If all the properties on the registration are jointly owned, each landlord does not need to register individually and pay the fee twice.

However, someone in the joint arrangement must take the ‘lead’ for the process and name and provide the date of birth for the other landlords during the registration process.

The lead person who will complete the registration starts by clicking the apply button (right-hand side of the menu bar) and following the landlord registration process.

If the lead person already has an account set up with Rent Smart Wales, they need to log in, go to ‘My Account Summary’ once in ‘My Dashboard’, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on ‘new landlord registration’.

When the lead person starts a registration, they are asked to select from a drop-down box what type of landlord they are.

Here, they select joint landlords. During the registration, they are prompted to provide information on the other joint landlords.

On the registration, the lead person declares who lets and manages the rental properties being registered.

Regarding training and applying for a licence, any landlord in a joint arrangement who carries out letting and management at a rental property in Wales will need to attend training and gain separate landlord licences.

The RSW website has a list of the relevant activities for which someone requires a landlord licence.

The RSW website also has a landlord licence application checklist that might be interesting.

I want to register online, but I am the landlord for many rental properties in Wales. Is there a way I can upload my properties to the register rather than input them individually?

The online process works best when all the properties are individually added to your registration.

However, there is now the functionality to import multiple records at the same time, making it faster and easier for landlords to add a moderate or large number of registered properties.

RSW has created a guide on its website to help you with this process.

Can an agent register on behalf of a landlord?

Only the landlord can complete the registration.

This will either be the individual named landlord, a lead named landlord on behalf of a joint arrangement, or a member of the company, charity or trust who is the landlord.

An agent or someone else cannot do it on behalf of a landlord.

The person completing the registration has to verify that the information being registered is true and accurate and is personally responsible for the record.

The registration process can be completed online, so a landlord can do it quickly and easily from wherever they may be based.

How much does it cost to register as a landlord?

A landlord registration costs £33.50 if completed online and £80.50 if done on a paper application form.

This is the cost for each landlord registration, no matter how many rental properties in Wales are included.

A separate registration must be done for each landlord arrangement a landlord is a part of; so if a landlord registered some properties in sole ownership, some in joint ownership, and some in company ownership, this would be three separate registrations, so three fees would be payable.

A higher fee is charged for a paper application, as Rent Smart Wales takes more time to process it.

What information is made publicly available about a registered landlord or licensed landlord/agent?

The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 states in Schedule 1 what information must be provided about a registered landlord, property or licensed landlord or agent if a request is made to the Licensing Authority.

You can obtain this information using the RSW public register by searching by property address, landlord’s name, agent’s name or landlord and agent reference numbers.

What fees are collected for landlord registration and landlord and agent licensing used?

The money received in fees will pay for Rent Smart Wales’s running costs.

This includes work to ensure licensed people comply with their licence conditions, investigate complaints from tenants, and undertake proactive enforcement work by local authorities in Wales to ensure those who try to ignore their legal obligations are made to comply or face sanctions.

Fee income is not collected to make a profit.

Do I need to include rental properties I have outside of Wales in my registration?

You do not need to include the addresses of any rental property you own outside of Wales on your registration.

Only properties located in Wales need to be declared.

How do you obtain a landlord licence, and how long does it last?

You can apply for a licence online on this website. First, you must create a personal account.

You can request a paper licence application form by contacting Rent Smart Wales on 03000 133344, or you can download a form to complete and return by post (for the paper fee) on the Rent Smart Wales website Resource Page.

To submit a valid licence application, all the information required must be submitted, the correct fee must be paid, evidence of suitable landlord training must be provided, and the ‘fit and proper’ person declaration must be completed.

A landlord must complete training to obtain a licence. This training can either be done directly with Rent Smart Wales or an approved course can be completed with a training provider authorised by Rent Smart Wales.

To read more about the licensing training requirement, go to the ‘What training must I do to obtain a licence?’ section.

Once a complete licence application is submitted to Rent Smart Wales, it will be assessed to determine if it can be granted.

This will involve confirming the application is complete, and the correct fee has been paid.

Rent Smart Wales must also be satisfied the landlord is ‘fit and proper’ (by ensuring they have no relevant convictions against them) and confirm the training completed by the applicant and/or their staff as part of the application is suitable for licensing purposes.

Licences can be refused if the applicant is not deemed ‘fit and proper’.

If a licence is awarded, the landlord will receive notification of their unique licence number and the conditions attached to their licence.

The landlord will also receive a licence card in the post.

How long does a Rent Smart Wales licence last?

Once a landlord is licensed, the lease lasts for 5 years. During that time, the applicant must keep the information in their licence application up to date (for instance, updating correspondence details if they change) and also comply with the conditions of the licence.

One condition will always be to adhere to the Code of Practice. The Welsh Government has created the Code of Practice to ensure a consistent letting and management practice standard in Wales.

If a licence holder fails to comply with any condition or is no longer ‘fit and proper’, their licence can be revoked.

This is a serious action as it would mean a landlord could no longer control their rental properties’ letting and management activities.

Instead, they would have to instruct a licensed agent to do the work on their behalf.

If you are not a member of the British Landlord Association, why not join us today?

The British Landlords Association is a national landlords association.

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