Private residential tenancy: model agreement

The private residential tenancy: know your rights

Your tenancy agreement

• Your tenancy is open-ended, which means it doesn't have a fixed length or a set date it will end. Your landlord cannot include an expected end date or minimum period in your tenancy agreement.
• If you are a joint tenant, all tenants are responsible for the rent, together and separately. This will apply for as long as the tenancy continues.
• To end a joint tenancy, all the joint tenants must agree to end it and give the landlord written notice that they want to leave. (You can transfer your interest in the tenancy to someone else, if you have your landlord's permission.)

Your deposit and rent

• Your landlord can only increase your rent once in a 12-month period, and must give you at least three months' notice that they are going to do this. If you think an increase is unreasonable, you can ask a rent officer from Rent Service Scotland to make a decision on whether it is fair.
• It is against the law for a landlord or letting agent to charge a fee or premium, or enter into a loan arrangement with you, as a condition of granting, renewing or continuing your tenancy. They can only charge you rent and a refundable deposit, and the deposit must not be more than two months' rent.
• If you have paid a landlord a deposit, they must pay it into an approved tenancy deposit scheme, and give you further information about this within 30 working days of the start of your tenancy. This information should include, for example, the amount paid and the date it was paid, the address of the property, confirmation that the landlord is registered, and contact details for the scheme.
• If your landlord has not paid your deposit into the scheme within this 30-day timescale, you can take them to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber), where they could be told to pay you up to three times the value of the deposit.

Repairs

• You can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) if your home doesn't reach a minimum standard of repair (known as the repairing standard).

Ending a tenancy

• Your landlord cannot end your tenancy without good reason. They can only end it by giving you 'notice to leave' for one or more of 18 reasons (grounds).
• If your landlord asks you to leave, they must give you:
  • 28 days' notice (if you have lived in the property for less than six months or the landlord is using one of the six 'behaviour' grounds); or
  • 84 days' notice (if you have lived in the property for more than six months and the landlord is not using the 'behaviour' grounds).
• If you want to leave, you must give your landlord 28 days' notice in writing. In your notice you will need to state the day you want the tenancy to end (this is normally the day after the notice period has ended).
• If you disagree with the reason given in the notice to leave given to you by your landlord, you do not need to leave your property until such times as your landlord has obtained an eviction order from the First-tier Tribunal (Housing and Property Chamber).
• If you think that your tenancy was ended unlawfully (for example, the landlord served you with a notice to leave on the grounds that they intended to sell the property, but then they let it to another tenant), you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber). The Tribunal can award you up to six months' rent.

For more information on any of these rights, please see the relevant section of the following tenancy agreement.