Repairing Standard: statutory guidance for private landlords

Summary

This guidance incorporates all the elements of the Repairing Standard which private landlords are required to comply with from 1 March 2024. The aim of the guidance is to equip private landlords with full detail of what they should do to ensure compliance with all the Repairing Standard.

Short Term Lets hosts/operators are also required to meet the Repairing Standard and this guidance is for use in determining whether they meet the required standards (see paragraph 2.5). The terms landlord, let and tenant when used in this guidance will be understood to apply accordingly to short term lets.

For some types of tenancies on agricultural holdings, the Repairing Standard will be enforceable from 28 March 2027 (see section 8).

New measures in place from 1 March 2024:

1. Safe Kitchens. The repairing standard will be amended to include a requirement to have safely accessible food storage and food preparation space in a private rented house.

2. Fixed Heating System. The existing duty to ensure that installations for the supply of heating are in a reasonable state of repair and in proper working order will be amended to specify that there must be a fixed heating system in a private rented house.

3. Safe Access to Common Parts. The existing duty to ensure that the structure and exterior of the house is in a reasonable state of repair and in proper working order will be amended to specify that where a private rented house is a flat in a tenement, the tenant must be able to safely access and use any common parts of the tenement, such as common closes.

4. Consent to Work on Common Parts. Section 16 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, which deals with exceptions to the landlord’s repairing duty, is amended to make it clear that a private rented house which is a flat in a tenement does not fail the repairing standard if work otherwise needed to comply with the standard cannot be carried out because a majority of owners in the tenement have refused consent to carry out the work.

5. Safe and Secure Common Doors. The existing duty to ensure fire safety in private rented houses will be amended to specify that common doors must be secure and fitted with satisfactory locks. This will be supported by Scottish Government guidance which will specify that locks must allow users to open them from the inside without a key so that they do not inhibit exit in the event of a fire.

6. Residual Current Devices. The existing duty to ensure that installations for the supply of electricity in a private rented house are in a reasonable state of repair and in proper working order will be amended to specify that these must include a residual current device (a device to reduce the risk of electrocution and fire by breaking the circuit in the event of a fault).

7. Lead Pipes. There is an existing duty to ensure that installations for the supply of water are in a reasonable state of repair and in proper working order. This guidance now specifies that the house should be free of lead pipes from the boundary stopcock to the kitchen tap, and that if this cannot be confirmed, a water quality test must be carried out.

8. Other Fuels. The existing duty to ensure that installations for the supply of gas and electricity in a private rented house are in a reasonable state of repair and in proper working order will be extended to any other type of fuel.