About Rent Service Scotland

Rent Service Scotland (RSS), part of the Scottish Government, has five main functions:

1. Setting Local Housing Allowance by gathering market evidence

If you're a private tenant, and your property was let after 7 April 2008, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) can help towards the cost of your rent. The rate of the allowance depends on the number of rooms you need and the area you live in. This ensures that those who live in similar circumstances in the same area receive a consistent amount of support towards their housing costs. LHA may not apply in all circumstances.

To ensure the LHA reflects the market, RSS encourages landlords, letting agents and so on to provide details of the rents they have achieved for properties. This important information is recorded and stored securely in the RSS market evidence database.

Market evidence is updated rent information that Rent Service Scotland is required to gather from letting agents, landlords and tenants. This information ensures that Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is based on the rents currently being paid in the private rented sector. It is also used to provide data to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and for the publication of the Private Sector Rent Statistics in Scotland.

If you can help please complete the market evidence form and return it to Rent Service Scotland. If you prefer to use your own form or provide the information in another way please do so. The collection, storage, use and disposal of lettings information is strictly controlled to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018.

2. Providing valuations to local authorities for private rented sector tenants

This will be for tenants who have been receiving housing benefit before 7 April 2008. Housing benefit helps people on low incomes living in the private rented sector before 7 April 2008 pay their rent. It is paid by local councils on behalf of the UK Government. To apply for housing benefit, or get more information, contact your local authority's housing benefit service.

3. Providing valuations for tenants and landlords for fair rent registrations

A fair rent can apply to accommodation in the private rented sector which was let before 2 January 1989 without a resident landlord. A rent officer will set a rent level based on a range of information about the property. Fair rents are registered by a rent officer at the request of a landlord or tenant and should be fair to both. Search the Online register of fair rents.

4. Adjudicating on rent increases for tenants with a private residential tenancy

The Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 introduced a new type of tenancy called a Private Residential Tenancy (PRT). Its purpose is to improve security, stability and predictability for tenants and provide safeguards for landlords, lenders and investors. The PRT is open-ended and will last until a tenant wishes to leave or a landlord uses one or more of the 18 grounds for eviction.

Under a PRT, a landlord can increase the rent no more than once a year and must give a tenant at least three months' notice of any increase.

If a tenant thinks a proposed rent increase is unreasonable, they can apply to a rent officer at Rent Service Scotland for a rent adjudication. The rent officer will set the rent level based on a range of information about the property and has the ability to decrease the rent it if they think it's too high.

From 1 April 2024 the process for rent adjudication is temporarily modified for one year.

Rent adjudication is not available if the let property is in a designated Rent Pressure Zone.

Read more:

• Register of private residential tenancy adjudications

• How to apply to Rent Service Scotland about your rent increase (more guidance).

5. Determining an additional amount of rent to reflect any improvements made by a landlord to a let property which is located in a Rent Pressure Zone

From 1 December 2017, local authorities can apply to Scottish Ministers to designate an area as a Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) if the authority can demonstrate that rents in that area are rising too much, causing undue hardship to tenants and having a detrimental effect on the authority's broader housing services.

If Scottish Ministers designate an area as an RPZ, any rent cap set by Ministers must allow rents in an RPZ to rise by at least the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) since the last rent change (or tenancy began) + one percentage point, although when setting the rent cap, Ministers will have the power to add additional percentage points to this if they consider this appropriate.

The cap set by Ministers also enables landlords to include an amount of rent to reflect any improvements made to the let property. A landlord can only do this by applying to a Rent Officer for a decision on how much additional rent they can add. Scottish Ministers have produced guidance under section 43(4)(a) of the Private Tenancies (Scotland) Act 2016 which a rent officer must follow when deciding the amount a landlord can include in the rent cap to reflect their improvements – this is also a guide for landlords.

More information on Rent Pressure Zones.

Data Protection

The information supplied to Rent Officers at Rent Service Scotland will be processed by the Rent Officer for the purposes of setting Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates by gathering market evidence; Providing valuations to local authorities for private rented sector tenants; Providing valuations for tenants and landlords for fair rent registrations; Adjudicating on rent increases for tenants with a private residential tenancy; Determining an additional amount of rent to reflect any improvements made by a landlord to a let property which is located in a Rent Pressure Zone.

This information will be held securely in the Rent Service Scotland ROCAS database and held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and in line with the current retention policies. This information is also shared with the Office of National Statistics and is used to calculate CPI(H). In the event of any appeal of the Rent Officer’s decision in determining a rent, this information will also be shared with the First Tier Tribunal (Housing & Property Chamber), so that they can determine the outcome of any appeal. If you need any further information please write to us at Rent Service Scotland, Compass House, 11 Riverside Drive. Dundee DD1 4NY. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at the above address.

Correspondence

Rent Service Scotland (RSS) cannot be held responsible for any items lost in the mail.  If you intend to send any correspondence by post to RSS, particularly if it includes any sensitive information, you may wish to consider sending it by a secure method such as recorded or special delivery. 

We aim to acknowledge any correspondence received by post that relates to an application for the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022, fair rents and housing benefit within 4 weeks. 

If you have not received an acknowledgement within 4 weeks, please contact RSS at rss.dundee@gov.scot or 0131 – 244 7000 to ascertain if the mail has been received. 

Please be aware that all documentation received by RSS will be scanned and the originals disposed of therefore you may wish to consider sending copies. 

Rent increase form - PRT - application by tenant to a Rent Officer

File type

9 page PDF

File size

278.5 kB

Rent increase form - PRT - application by landlord to a Rent Officer

File type

5 page PDF

File size

213.6 kB