As you’re probably aware, the Scottish Government have imposed a temporary eviction ban & a rent increase freeze.

What does this mean for you?

Eviction ban:

Currently we are not allowed to evict tenants, but we can still give them Notice to Leave under the prescribed grounds. If a tenant leaves the property voluntarily, then we’d get vacant possession. If a tenant refuses to leave the property, then we can apply to the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) for an eviction order which, if granted would be legal grounds to get vacant possession. HOWEVER, the sheriff officers who do the “physical” evicting, will not action the warrant.

So to recap, we can ask tenants to leave & we can give tenants Notice to leave documents, we just can’t enforce them!

Rent increase freeze:

We are currently prohibited from increasing rents, however, the Scottish government has agreed to lift the ban from 1 April 2023 & allow for a rent increase of up to 3%.
Under various circumstances, you can apply to a Rent Officer for a larger increase (up to 6%).

We can notify tenants of a rent increase from 1 April. If you want your rent to increase by this margin then you need to serve your tenants a Rent Increase Notice. A tenant needs to be given 3 months notice of a rent increase. If you serve the notice on 1 April, then the rent increase will come into effect on 1 July or the next rent-due-date in July. Furthermore, we can only increase rents once a year. Our recommendation would be that if you have not increased your rent in the past year, that you take this opportunity!

Please also remember that this is not applicable if a tenant vacates a property. When you re-rent the property, you are not restricted to increasing the rent by 3%, you can put it up to a realistic market rent.