You could be liable for your tenant’s water debt in the following ares’s, from the 1st January 2015 unless you act! From 1st January 2015 there will be an obligation on all landlords with properties in the Welsh Water and Dee Valley Water areas to share certain information about their tenants with their water company. The majority of properties affected are in Wales, but these Water Authority areas also cover parts of Cheshire, Merseyside, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Gloucestershire. If you fall under the Welsh Water or Dee Valley Water areas, and you do not notify the relevant company of your tenants details you will become jointly-liable for the occupants’ water debt. Please note these obligations DO NOT include the Severn Trent authority areas. You will be under obligation to notify the relevant company of the, • full name • date of birth (if you hold it) • the date the occupancy began for each of the occupants within the property (as well as obviously the property address). For existing occupants, you will have to do this by the 21st January 2015 , and for new occupants within 21 days of them moving in or their tenancy or contractual arrangement beginning (whichever is sooner). We recommend that you do this via the designated Landlordtap (landlordtap). Once you have registered you will be able to follow the on-screen instructions to enable you to provide the relevant information to the Water Authority. We believe that ‘landlord Tap’ will be live from 22nd December 2014. For more details please read the full guidance on the here: https://rla.org.uk/landlord/guides/liability-for-water-payments.shtml For water company boundaries click here: ofwat.gov.uk/consumerissues/watercompanies/map/ Policy Team, Residential Landlords Association
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 16:33:40 +0000