Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016: consultation on regulations

Section 1: How To Use The Model

This Model Tenancy Agreement contains two categories of clause:

The first category is the core rights and obligations, which includes, among other things, the statutory terms applicable to all private residential tenancies, the repairing standard and tenancy deposits. They are 'mandatory clauses' which must feature in all agreements when using this model. These terms are laid down in the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, supporting secondary legislation and other relevant housing legislation and are indicated in bold typeface. These clauses should be read alongside the relevant legislation, as the legislation takes priority and may change from time to time.

The second category is discretionary terms, which the landlord may or may not wish to include in the written tenancy agreement. These are in ordinary typeface. This category includes any additional terms the landlord chooses to add. Landlords may do this provided the requirements of the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, supporting secondary legislation, Statutory Terms, Regulations and other housing legislation are met.

Any clauses which contain square brackets [     ], indicate clauses with options depending on the terms of the tenancy (such as frequency of rent payments).

A legal commentary on paragraphs contained in the recommended model tenancy agreement is provided in section 4. ^[5]

A key of the different categories of clause has been included as a footnote for ease of reference.