Wales
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Welsh law and policy update: recent developments
This article reviews significant case-law and reports on the latest developments in policy and procedure.
About the author: Dr Huw Pritchard is a
lecturer in devolved law and
governance at Cardiff
School of Law and Politics,
Cardiff University
Case law
- Evans v Fleri
[2019] EW Misc 13 (CC),
18 April 2019
The Housing (Wales) Act (H(W)A) 2014 requires landlords with properties in Wales to be registered and licensed through Rent Smart Wales. This case involves a landlord that wished to impose a section 21 notice (under Housing Act 1988) for their tenant but was not licensed nor had appointed a licensed agent, at the time under the terms of the H(W)A. The key issue in the case is to what extent an unlicensed landlord can rely on a section 21 notice to terminate a tenancy.
The case involved the interpretation of H(W)A ss7 and 44. Section 7 lists prohibited actions unless the landlord is licensed. This includes ‘serving notice to terminate a tenancy’ (section 7(2)(f)).
On the other hand, section 44 provides that a section 21 notice may not be given [type of tenancy] if the landlord is (a) not registered in respect of the dwelling, or (b) not licensed under the [H(W)A]. Due to the conflict between sections 7 and 44, and the interpretation of the term ‘or’ in section 44, the case was given permission to appeal.
The judgment held that a conjunctive interpretation of section 44 was required. It looked to other relevant provisions of the H(W)A and to the enacting history of the Act itself. In this regard, the H(W)A includes stringent requirement on landlords that wished to be licensed and section 44 had been directly inserted in the bill, after scrutiny by the National Assembly, to ensure that unlicensed landlords are prevented from serving no-fault eviction notices. Therefore, the judge held that section 44 required the landlord to be registered and licensed before serving a section 21 notice.
In obiter, the landlord was under the impression that he had done all that was required of him to gain his licence, as he completed the landlord training course and paid the licence fee in June 2016.
However, Rent Smart Wales noted that the application was not valid as the required declaration had not been submitted. Rent Smart Wales accepted that the navigation of the site was not clear at the time and that changes have since been made.
- R (B) v Neath Port Talbot CBC
12 March 2019
The justiciability of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 (WBFG(W)A) 2015 was brought into question recently as an attempt to use it to challenge a school closure was dismissed.
The WBFG(W)A is flagship legislation by the Welsh Government, which requires public authorities to take into account matters of sustainable development and the impact of their decisions on future generations living in Wales. To achieve this, they must set well-being objectives to improve the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being principle central to the WBFG(W)A and to ‘act in a manner which seeks to ensure that the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (sections 3–5).
The case involved the decision by Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council to close Cymer Afan Comprehensive School. Campaigners based their argument on the sustainability of the community if the school closed and attempted, for the first time, to use the future generations legislation in litigation.
