Rented Sector Reform: Landlord and Tenant Engagement Questionnaire & Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 Update
Rented Sector Reform
As set out in this year’s Programme for Government, the First Minister reaffirmed our commitment to delivering a New Deal for Tenants by creating new tenants’ rights and powers for the introduction of a system of long term rent controls for the private rented sector. To support that, and to continue our engagement with stakeholders across landlord, tenant and investor groups, we have launched an engagement questionnaire seeking to ask landlords and tenants a range of questions on our proposed reforms to the rented sector.
The questionnaire can be accessed via Citizen Space, the Scottish Government’s consultation platform, and will be open to responses for 4 weeks, closing on Friday 27 October. You can access it here:
https://consult.gov.scot/better-homes-division/rented-sector-reform-landlord-and-tenant
A supporting paper, providing more detail on our current proposals for a New Deal for Tenants, has been published to help landlords and tenants who wish to respond to the questionnaire.
The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022
The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 came into force in October 2022 and introduced extra protections for tenants. The Act aims to protect tenants by temporarily:
- restricting private sector landlords from increasing the amount of rent they can charge private sector tenants;
- placing certain restrictions on enforcement of evictions from residential tenancies in both the private and social rented sectors; and
- balancing these restrictions with safeguards for those private landlords who may be facing particular cost pressures or financial hardship
The rent cap applies to most tenants in the private rented sector.
The rent cap was able to be expired in the social sector following a voluntary agreement being reached on rent setting with the sector.
The rent cap was able to be suspended in the purpose built student accommodation sector due to evidence that the rent setting process for the academic year meant that the rent cap had minimal impact.
The evictions protections continue to apply across all sectors.
The Scottish Parliament has approved a final six month extension of the Act, meaning that the following measures will be in place until 31 March 2024 at the latest:
most in-tenancy private sector rent increases will continue to be capped at 3% for any 12-month period;
- enforcement of evictions will continue to be paused for six months for most tenants, except in a number of specified circumstances; and
- private sector landlords who may be facing particular cost pressures or financial hardship can apply for approval to increase rent by up to 6% to help cover certain increases in costs in a specified time period where these costs can be evidenced
You can view more information on the measures here:
