Civil justice statistics in Scotland: 2014-2015

10. Eviction

Eviction cases rose in 2014-15 for the second year in a row but are still 31 per cent lower than in 2008-09

Eviction cases involve the taking of a rented property by the owner from tenants

Eviction in Scotland

Eviction cases involve the taking of property by the owner from an occupier, usually a tenant, that has accrued rent arrears or where the tenancy agreement has been breached. Landlords can apply for an eviction if they want their tenants removed from the property. Reasons for doing so can include rent arrears, breach of tenancy agreements or when the tenancy comes to an end and the occupier refuses to vacate the property. Most eviction cases relate to rent arrears, rather than for breaches of some other aspect of the tenancy agreement.

Initiating action for eviction for rent arrears can only happen after landlords have followed a set of pre-action requirements. Eviction should not be confused with repossession which, for the purposes of these statistics, relates to the retaking of property when a borrower is in breach or default of a mortgage or loan secured on the property.

Eviction cases are raised under summary cause procedure within the sheriff courts and once granted, allow the landlord to legally remove tenants from the property and retake possession of it. It is important to note that when an eviction has been granted by the courts, this means that the court has permitted the eviction process to proceed but this does not mean that the eviction will necessary take place.

Eviction cases made up 18 per cent of all civil court cases initiated in 2014-15. The eviction statistics in this release relate to tenants of rented properties in the social housing (local authority and registered social landlords) and private sectors. Detailed statistics on the eviction of local authority tenants are available from Scottish Government Housing statistics.

Courts

There were 13,750 eviction cases initiated in 2014-15 related to tenants of properties in the social housing and private sectors. This was a rise of 17 per cent compared to 2013-14 but 31 per cent lower than 2008-09 (Figure 18 and Table 21). Around two thirds of eviction cases initiated relate to local authority tenants^[8]. The management of rent arrears by some local authorities is likely to have contributed to the reduction in eviction cases coming to court since 2008-09. In addition, measures to strengthen the protection for such tenants where eviction action for rent arrears is being considered were introduced in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010 and came into force on 1 August 2012.

Over half of eviction cases were found 'for pursuer', while 92 per cent of cases were undefended (Table 22).

Figure 18: Eviction cases initiated in the sheriff courts