The Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Prescribed Limits of Default Payments) (Wales) Regulations 2020

• Citation: S.I. 2020/202 (W.)
• Sections: 4

Section 1 Title, commencement and interpretation

(1) The title of these Regulations is the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Prescribed Limits of Default Payments) (Wales) Regulations 2020 and they come into force on 28 April 2020.

(2) In these Regulations, a “contract-holder” has the same meaning as in the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 .

Section 2 Prescribed limits for failure to pay rent

(1) The prescribed limit in the case of a failure by a contract-holder to make a payment of rent to a landlord by the due date is to be determined as follows.

(2) In the case of a failure to make a payment of rent before the end of the period of seven days beginning with the due date, the prescribed limit is zero.

(3) In the case of a failure to make a payment of rent after the end of the period of seven days beginning with the due date, the prescribed limit is the aggregate of the amounts found by applying, in relation to each day after the due date for which the rent remains unpaid, an annual percentage rate of three per cent above the Bank of England base rate to the amount of rent that remains unpaid at the end of that day.

(4) In this regulation, the “Bank of England base rate” means the percentage rate announced from time to time by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England as the official dealing rate, being the rate at which the Bank is willing to enter into transactions for providing short term liquidity in the money markets.

(5) But where an order under section 19 of the Bank of England Act 1998 is in force, any equivalent percentage rate determined by the Treasury under that section applies.

Section 3 Additional descriptions of default payment

The additional descriptions of default in respect of which a prescribed limit is specified are—

(a) a breach by a contract-holder of a term of the contract which leads to the requirement for a lock giving access to the dwelling to which the contract-holder’s contract relates to be changed, added to or removed, and

(b) a breach by a contract-holder of a term of the contract which leads to the requirement for a key or other security device which gives access to the dwelling to which the contract relates to be replaced.

Section 4 Prescribed limit for additional descriptions of default payment

(1) The prescribed limit in respect of the descriptions of default payments specified in regulation 3 is the amount equal to the actual cost of the replacement, change, addition or removal.

(2) In this regulation, the “actual cost” means the cost of the key, security device or lock, as evidenced by an invoice or receipt.

(3) Where a third party contractor undertakes the replacement of a key or other security device or the change, addition or removal of a lock, as referred to in regulation 3 on behalf of the landlord, the “actual cost” includes the cost of that contractor’s labour, as evidenced by an invoice or a receipt.