The Scottish Government has this month announced their ‘Programme for Government’ as to their intended future legislation. Included in that announcement are significant changes impacting the law of residential tenancies (i.e. private and social housing); being (a) an immediate rent freeze and (b) notice of their intention to introduce a moratorium on evictions. The announcement is rather general; detail is lacking. But it seems both bans will endure until at least 31 March 2023. As stated, further detail is still awaited but what we currently know is as follows: –
No Rent Increases; the Government has stated that all landlords are, with effect from 6th September 2022, barred from increasing rent. The actual detail of that ban is awaited; it is not for example clear if this will impact notices of rent increases issued prior to that date, but the suspicion is that the Government may try for that as well.
No Evictions; the date for the commencement of the ban on eviction is awaited, as is the detail (again what notices will it apply to – those issued prior to the date of the ban?). The devil will be in the detail and impact on what (and when) we can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, Housing and Property Chamber. Evictions are still being executed (that is done by Sheriff Officers) but the Sheriff Officers we tend to instruct are now advising that as ‘…the Scottish Government is expected to soon put an amnesty on the execution of any evictions throughout the winter, it may be that [any] eviction we arrange subsequently requires to be cancelled.’
We are monitoring for the Government’s detail, but this may significantly impact on landlords’ ability to deal with tenanted property; for further advice please contact Jackson Boyd’s dispute resolution team.
