Where a person occupies premises and the rent is payable weekly, a landlord must provide a rent book [section 4 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985]. Such a rent book must contain the name and address of the landlord and where the tenancy is an assured or assured shorthold tenancy, it must also contain notice of such matters as may be prescribed and the notice must be in the prescribed form [section 5 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985].

From 31 March 2014, The Rent Book (Forms of Notice) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2014 make a small change to this prescribed information as a result of the welfare reform changes and in particular Universal Credit.

One rather odd thing about the legislation is that nothing is mentioned as to the extent of the application of the regulations but presumably the changes can only be in relation to premises in Wales [1].

It would seem therefore that for the time being Wales will have a slightly different rent book to England but hopefully England will make changes soon aligning them back together again.


  1. Article 2 of The National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999 only extends the transfer of functions ‘so far as exercisable in relation to Wales’ but normally the extent is mentioned in the regulations, see for example regulation 1(3) of the recent The Assured Tenancies and Agricultural Occupancies (Forms) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2014 which says “These Regulations apply in relation to premises situated in Wales.”  ↩