Letting agents trade body Propertymark has welcomed the end of temporary rent adjudication measures in Scotland.
The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022, which temporarily protected tenants by controlling rent, limiting evictions, and setting up rent review measures, ended a year ago.
But some measures were extended under the Rent Adjudication (Temporary Modifications) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 which restricted rent increases – this ended earlier this week.
Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that Scotland’s annual inflation rate hit a record-high annual rise of 11.7% in August 2023, which has been reflected in rising rents for new lets, pushing up costs for new or moving tenants.
From this week, if a tenancy started on or after December 1 2017, rent increases will only be approved once in 12 months, and landlords must use the prescribed form and provide three months’ notice.
A tenant will have 21 days of receiving the notice if they believe the proposed rent is too high, they can then apply to Rent Service Scotland who will decide the amount of rent the tenant must pay based on an assessment of the ‘open market’ rent, which could be lower or higher than the increase requested by the landlord.
Either tenant or landlord has a right of appeal within 14 days of receiving the Rent Service Scotland notification which would return to a rent officer who would make a ‘final order’ decision and finally an appeal can be made to the First Tier Tribunal (Housing and Property Chamber) within 14 days of the final order.
Timothy Douglas, Head of Policy and Campaigns at Propertymark, says: “Letting agents and their landlords across Scotland will welcome the end of the rent adjudication measures implemented by the Scottish Government. Importantly, there will be no immediate replacement for temporary rent controls, and it will be back to standard rules for rent adjudication.
“Restrictive measures on rent control have caused rents to rise and stalled investment across Scotland. It’s now vital that policy makers learn the lessons and do not repeat the mistakes of restricting rents that put up costs for tenants over the long run.”
