Keys, dates, and the paper that proves them

Lettings office49 Queens Park, Holyhead

KKA LETTINGS 49 QUEENS PARK · HOLYHEAD · LL65 1PS

A letting in Wales has not been a tenancy since 1 December 2022. The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 put an occupation contract in its place, turned the tenant into a contract-holder, and replaced the old eviction sections with 173 and 186.

02Three things are held, and only one of them is a key

  1. What is heldWhat records it

  2. Keys

    A set is counted at check-in and counted again at check-out: door, window lock, meter cupboard, outbuilding, entry fob.

  3. Dates

    The occupation date. The day a deposit was received. The date on the face of a gas record. The day a repair was reported.

  4. Paper

    Each duty in the 2016 Act has one document that answers it.

03Six words the 2016 Act changed, and what they are now

The old words still arrive in letters, and in software written for England.

Tenancy→occupation contract, fixed-term or periodic. Tenant→contract-holder, and joint holders share one statement. Assured shorthold tenancy→standard occupation contract, the default private-sector form in Wales.

Tenancy agreement→written statement of the contract. Section 21 notice→section 173 notice. Inventory→schedule of condition, room by room, with the meter readings and the key count. The full obligation list

04How a key is cut, and what its tag is allowed to say

KEY TAG — FIXED FORM LL65 · 00 · 00

The three fields on a tag: postcode district, property number in the file, key number within the set. A tag found in a street says nothing about the door it opens.

A blank has a bow, a shoulder and a blade. The bitting is the stepped profile cut along the blade's edge, and the depth of each cut is what the cylinder reads. Cut six steps in the wrong order and the blank is scrap.

05Four periods, and the day each one starts

  1. 14days

    The written statement reaches the contract-holder.

    From the occupation date

  2. 28days

    The gas safety record is issued.

    From the day of the check

  3. 30days

    The deposit is protected, the prescribed information served.

    From the day the money arrived

  4. 5years

    The electrical installation is tested again.

    To the date on the report

06Six obligations, and the document that answers each

iThe dwelling must be fit for human habitation, judged against the matters set out in the 2022 regulations.

i · Fitness assessmentDated before the occupation date, filed with the photographs from the same visit.

iiA smoke alarm in working order on each storey, and a carbon monoxide alarm in every room with a gas, oil or solid fuel appliance.

ii · Alarm test sheetEach alarm tested and ticked at check-in, with its position written down.

iiiThe electrical installation inspected and tested at intervals of no more than five years.

iii · Electrical installation condition reportThe next inspection date is on its face, and that is the date diarised.

ivGas appliances and flues checked for safety every twelve months by a registered engineer.

iv · Gas safety recordIssued to the contract-holder within twenty-eight days of the check.

vA written statement of the occupation contract given to the contract-holder within fourteen days of the occupation date.

v · Written statementThe copy in the file identical to the copy in the dwelling.

viAny deposit protected in an authorised scheme, with prescribed information served, within thirty days of receipt.

vi · Scheme certificate, prescribed informationBoth dated.

07Thirty days from the day the money arrived

The period runs from the day the money reached the landlord or the agent, and it covers two acts: protecting the deposit in an authorised scheme, and serving the prescribed information.

A deposit received on the first of a thirty-one day month must be protected and the information served by the thirty-first.

Deposit protection deadline guide only

Enter the day the money arrived. The deadline, the days elapsed and the days left print below as a subtraction.

08The schedule of condition settles the argument a year later

CHECK-IN · SCHEDULE OF CONDITION ROOM AS FOUND PHOTO Hall Kitchen Bathroom Rooms Meters Keys
Written before the keys go out, room by room.

At check-out somebody will say the stain was there at the start. The only thing that answers that is the sheet written at check-in.

CHECK-OUT · REPORT AGAINST IT ROOM AS LEFT SAME Hall Kitchen Bathroom Rooms noted → Meters Keys
Written against the schedule in the same order, so the two can be read line for line.

A proposed deduction runs from schedule, to report, to written quotation, to the proposal put to the contract-holder. Check-in and check-out, in order

09Counting back from the end of a fixed term

Under section 173 a landlord's notice on a periodic standard contract runs for six months and may not be given within the first six months of the occupation date. Where a contract carries its own break clause, the later restriction is the one that bites.

  1. 1

    Occupation date

    Every other date here is counted from it.

  2. 2

    Six months in

    The statutory floor. Before it a notice cannot be given at all.

  3. 3

    Notice served

    On the later of the floor and the date the clause allows.

  4. 4

    Earliest expiry

    Six months on, and never before the term ends.

Held in the fileThe notice, the covering letter, and the record of how and when it was served.

Notice period planner guide only

Enter the occupation date and the two lengths. Every step of the arithmetic prints, forward and backward.

10Holy Island, the island behind it, and two bridges off

HOLYHEAD Valley Trearddur Rhosneigr Llangefni Amlwch Benllech Menai Bridge Beaumaris mainland Irish Sea
Schematic, not to scale. The office is on Holy Island; a Holyhead file is reached across the Stanley Embankment or over Four Mile Bridge.

Anglesey is not one island. The office sits on Holy Island, joined to Anglesey proper by the Stanley Embankment carrying the A55 and, four miles south, by Four Mile Bridge. Everything else leaves the group over the Menai Strait.

Much of the island is off the gas grid. An oil-fired boiler has no gas safety record, but a room with an oil appliance still needs a carbon monoxide alarm.

Property reference, by districtA file is opened under the postcode district rather than the street: LL65 for Holyhead and Valley, LL63 and LL64 along the south-west coast, LL77 inland at Llangefni, LL74 and LL75 on the east shore. Stock, distances and the seasons