New Housing Bill Published

The Housing (Scotland) Bill was introduced to parliament 26th March following three public consultations. It will now be scrutinised by the Scottish Parliament. You can read it in all its glory below.

The highlights are:

1. Rent control - not immediate but local authorities will be required to assess rents in their area at least every 5 years to advise if rent controls should be introduced.

2. Landlords won’t be able to increase the rent during the first 12 months of a PRT

3. Ending joint tenancies - at present all joint tenants needs to agree to end a joint tenancy, if passed this bill means only one joint tenant can serve notice to end the tenancy. Seems like a good idea to me.

4. Tenants being allowed to hang pictures without consent and being allowed to paint with consent which cannot be unreasonably withheld although landlords can still say yes with the condition the property is returned to its original colour at the end of the tenancy.

5. Pets - tenants with PRT will have the right to request a pet and landlords cannot unreasonably refuse but can attach conditions e.g. higher deposit.

6. More protection during eviction - FTT can delay enforcement eviction if it thinks eviction will cause particular hardship or harm to the tenants. Like the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Scotland Bill, some grounds will be expempt from this protection i.e. eviction for anti-social behaviour.

7. Phasing out of SAT and AT to convert them to PRT. I hope this is handled better than Wales converting AST to Occupation Contracts.