Private residential tenancy model agreement: easy read notes

10. Rent Increases

The rent can only go up once a year. Before the rent can go up, the tenant must be given an official notice called a rent-increase notice. This notice might be sent by email if the Agreement allows for this. Any rent-increase notice must be given to the tenant by the landlord at least 3 months before the date that the rent is to go up.

If the tenant receives a rent-increase notice, and the tenant thinks that the new rent would be higher than is being charged at that time for similar properties, then the tenant can ask a Rent Officer to decide whether the increase is fair.

"Fair" here means an amount similar to the rent which is, at that time, being charged for similar properties on new lettings. It does not mean how much the tenant can afford to pay.

Tenants must follow certain steps to ask the Rent Officer to make this decision and there is a 21 day time limit for this to be done. If these steps are not followed by the tenant within the 21 day time limit then the tenant will lose their right to challenge the rent increase - and the rent will be increased to the amount wanted by the landlord.

These steps are as follows:

• The tenant must return Part 3 of the rent-increase notice to the landlord - to tell the landlord that the tenant intends to ask the Rent Officer to decide whether the rent increase is fair;
• The tenant then fills in a form called the Tenant's Rent Increase Referral to a Rent Officer under section 24 (1) of the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 to be used for this purpose, a copy of which can be accessed on the Scottish Government website, or through Rent Service Scotland –see Useful Contacts and Links at the end of these Notes; and
• The tenant then sends the finished form to the Rent Officer.

All of this must be done within 21 days after the tenant receives the rent-increase notice. If this is not done then the rent increase will go ahead.

If the tenant accepts the rent increase, they should return Part 3 of rent-increase notice to the landlord to tell them that.

Part 3 of the rent-increase notice can also be returned to the landlord by the tenant to say if the tenant has not been given long enough notice of a rent increase - so if less than 3 months’ notice was given. If the landlord gives less than the 3 months' notice, then the tenant will not need to pay the increased rent until 3 months have passed. So the landlord cannot try and increase the rent on one month's notice for example.

If the property is in a Rent Pressure Zone, the tenant cannot go to a Rent Officer about the rent increase. That is because the Scottish Ministers have already limited the amount by which the rent can be increased. (See Note 8 – Rent). As the landlord cannot increase the rent higher than the cap, the tenant doesn’t need to pay any rent above the cap. The tenant has a number of options:-

• only pay the rent up to the limit of the cap as the tenant is at no risk of eviction;
• contact one of the advice groups listed at the end of these Notes; or
• apply to the Tribunal to draw up the terms of the tenancy (as the terms of tenancy have changed as the rent has increased).

You should tell your landlord what you intend to do. In any event, if you apply to the Tribunal, your landlord must be given 28 days’ notice.