Private residential tenancy: model agreement

Section 1: How to Use the Model

A Landlord is under a duty to provide the written terms of a private residential tenancy under section 10 of the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 ("the Act"). This is the Scottish Government's Model Private Residential Tenancy Agreement ("Model Tenancy Agreement") which may be used to fulfil this duty.

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 any agreement prepared using this model. These terms are laid down in the Act, 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. The Model Tenancy Agreement contains a number of suggested terms which the Landlord may edit or remove as required. This category will also include any additional terms the Landlord chooses to add. Any additional terms added or edited by the Landlord must comply with the requirements of the Act, supporting secondary legislation and other relevant legislation.

Some of the mandatory and discretionary clauses contain square brackets [ ], this indicates clauses with options depending on the terms of the tenancy (such as frequency of rent payments).

Easy read notes on all of the clauses contained in this Model Tenancy Agreement are provided in the Easy Read Notes for the Scottish Government Model Private Residential Tenancy Agreement. If your Landlord has used this Model Private Residential Tenancy Agreement they must also give you a copy of these Notes.

The Private Residential Tenancies (Information for Tenants) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 provide that if a Landlord chooses not to use this Model Private Residential Tenancy Agreement, the Landlord is still legally required to give a Tenant a copy of the Private Residential Tenancy Statutory Terms Supporting Notes.

A key to the different categories of clause has been included on the Contents page and at the start of Section 3: Model Private Residential Tenancy Agreement.