4th
Oct 2022
The majority of the private rental sector and housing association experts have slammed and even political activists and tenants have condemned Holyrood’s plan.
However according to activists’ mindset the rent freeze is nowhere near enough.
The proposal has now been passed by Scottish members of parliament and the emergency legislation is now in force. The agreed Bill, the Cost of Living(Tenant Protection)(Scotland), now gives MPs temporary powers to freeze/cap rents for private and social tenancies until at least March 31st 2023, and may well be extended for a further year.
The Bill is allowing a very few exceptions to the rule where landlords are able to contact a Rent Officer for permission to increase rent to partly cover property costs, mortgage interest payments and some insurance costs, and may be granted under exceptional circumstances.
The legislation says: “Where evidenced, a Rent Officer may order that a landlord would be able to increase rent by the lower of: 50 per cent of the increase in these prescribed costs in the preceding six months, or, three per cent of the existing rent level. If the Rent Officer’s decision is disputed there would be a route of appeal for landlords and tenants to the First Tier Tribunal.”
The Scottish tenant activist group ‘Now Living Rent’ in cohorts with Acorn’s campaign in England, has just tweeted its disgust at even the very few ‘exceptional circumstances’ for rent increases.
It says: “The rent freeze legislation still allows for some landlords to increase their rents by 3%. Rent has increased in Scotland by 15% in the cities over the last year. Rent is already unaffordable and any further increases are completely unmanageable.”
The Scottish legislation’s rent freeze also includes an eviction ban with landlords found guilty of unlawful evictions will face fines of up to 36 months’ worth of rent.
The measures also cover university and college students in Halls of Residence and similar types of accommodation.
Richard Merrick: "The utterly ridiculous clause in the Bill’s legislation for banning evictions will no doubt help some tenants to ‘happily’ fall into rental arrears without any fear of recrimination.
“It will be interesting to see how long it will take for Wales to follow suit and then London’s Mayor Khan will jump onto the bandwagon, followed by other cities, which will see a tidal wave of landlords jumping ship.”
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