During 2025, Scotland passed the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, introducing a range of reforms to the private rented sector. The legislation provides for a number of changes designed to strengthen tenants’ rights, including new rights to request permission to keep a pet or make certain changes to their home, as well as changes to the …
Read more >Scotland’s Private Rented Sector (PRS) continues to evolve following a decade of significant legislative reform. From the introduction of the Private Residential Tenancy (PRT) in 2017 to the development of Rent Control Areas (RCAs), housing policy remains one of the most debated areas at Holyrood. In episode 106 of the Citylets podcast, Gillian is joined …
Read more >The Housing (Scotland) Bill marks significant reform in Scottish housing law. Part 1 of the Bill introduces extensive powers for local authorities (LAs) to assess rent conditions and obtain tenancy-related information from landlords, agents, and tenants. Assessing rent conditions The Bill requires LAs to periodically assess rent levels and increases within their area and the …
Read more >The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Saving Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 Prior to the pandemic and cost of living crisis, rent increases were not subject to much attention in the Scottish PRS. This is because landlords rarely sought to increase the rent during a tenancy, often allowing the rent to remain the same for a …
Read more >What the New Rent Controls Mean – How to Work out the ‘Calculated Amount’ and ‘Market Difference’ With the final period of the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (the Act) coming up fast on 31 March 2024, the question that was on the Private Rented Sector’s mind was “what is next”? Were …
Read more >It has been mentioned in previous blogs that the Scottish Government intends to bring forward a new Housing Bill in the latter part of this year which is to include, what were described as ‘meaningful rent controls’. The background to the intended new Housing Bill was the ‘New Deal for Tenants: Draft PRS Strategy’, published …
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