Category: Legal

First Ever Award of Wrongful Termination by Eviction Order

An Edinburgh tenant has been awarded a first ever Wrongful Termination Order by the Housing and Property Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland. In this landmark case, the landlord was ordered to pay £1,350 for evicting his tenant on false grounds. Jesus Rodriguez-Ortega rented a studio flat from Cesar Dominguez-Lopez. When Jesus asked his …

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Ripple Effect of UK’s Court Ruling on ‘No DSS’ Lettings Ban

The Department for Social Security (DSS) ceased to exist in 2001, however, the term ‘No DSS’ has been used in property listings up until recently to indicate that recipients of housing benefits would not be accepted for a particular property. This was mainly due to the fact that certain mortgage and insurance providers would stipulate …

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First-tier Tribunal Criticised by Tenant for Not Following ‘Expert’ View

A tenant whose attempt to sue a landlord for almost £14k was dismissed, has criticised the First-tier Tribunal for not following a legal practitioner’s view in a published article which supported the renter’s claim. Rent advance agreement James Malloch entered into a short assured tenancy agreement, in relation to a property in Edinburgh, with Bernisdale …

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Unlawfully Evicted Tenant Awarded £18k

A tenant who was found to have been unlawfully evicted has been awarded damages by the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber. In this first of its kind Tribunal decision, the tenant was granted £18,000. Dambaru Baral raised a case against his landlords, Mohammed and Khalda Arif, in September 2018 after he was …

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New Deadline for Minimum EPC Standards

The introduction of new Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) standards in the Scottish Private Rented Sector (PRS) has been delayed until 1st October 2020. The new regulations aiming to help landlords reduce energy bills and tackle the climate emergency, were originally set to be implemented on 1st April 2020. However, due to delays in finalising the …

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Levelling the Playing Field – Crackdown on Short Term Lets

At a time when Scotland suffers from a chronic undersupply of housing and the private rented sector is being increasingly more regulated, landlords are tempted to shift their properties from the residential sector to the less regulated short term lets market, with its potentially higher gains. In Scotland there are 31,000 active short term let …

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