Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 - proposed extension of section 10: statement of reasons

2. Background

2.1 The 2022 Act, which came into force on 28 October 2022, aims to:

• protect tenants by stabilising their housing costs through the introduction of a temporary, variable rent cap;
• where possible, during the cost crisis, reduce impacts on the health and wellbeing of tenants caused by being evicted and/or being made homeless by giving them more time to find alternative accommodation; and
• seek to avoid tenants being evicted from the private sector by a landlord wanting to raise rents between tenancies during the temporary measures of a moratorium on evictions and raising the level of damages that may be awarded.

Background to the Rent Adjudication process

2.2 Under the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 ('the 2016 Act'), tenants with a private residential tenancy may make an application to a Rent Officer (Rent Service Scotland) for a rent adjudication assessment, if they feel a rent increase is not reasonable.

2.3 A Rent Officer will make a determination on what the rent for the property should be, by comparing the rent to market rent for similar properties in the same locality ('open market rent'). A similar rent adjudication process exists for tenants with assured tenancies and short assured (under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988 ('the 1988 Act')), although applications are made to the Tribunal rather than to a Rent Officer.

2.4 Whilst the emergency Act is in force, this process has temporarily been stopped but it will come back into force on 1 April 2024.