Social landlords: pre-action requirement where domestic abuse is a factor in rent arrears Equality Impact Assessment Results

Background

The Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreement introduced in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, provides strong protection for tenants against eviction. In rent arrears cases, it is at the discretion of a sheriff whether to grant an eviction order after considering all of the circumstances of the individual case.

The legislative protection for social sector tenants facing eviction for rent arrears was strengthened further in 2012 by the introduction of pre-action requirements. Before an eviction order can be granted by the court, social landlords must satisfy the court that a range of steps called pre-action requirements have been met. These include giving tenants in arrears every opportunity to take up help to maximise their income, to manage their debts and to agree an affordable and sustainable repayment plan. This means that social landlords must have exhausted all attempts to resolve rent arrears with the tenant before taking action to evict.

In August 2019 the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, at that time, Aileen Campbell MSP, announced a Scottish Government working group to consider how Scotland could improve housing outcomes for women and children experiencing domestic abuse. The group was co-chaired by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Scotland and Scottish Women’s Aid (SWA).

The working group report Improving Housing Outcomes for Women and Children Experiencing Domestic Abuse[4] highlighted six areas which, acted on together, could significantly reduce domestic abuse related homelessness. This is a leading cause of women’s homelessness, and, consequently, affects significant numbers of children and their long-term outcomes.

The report explains that social landlords may also hold women who have lost their home responsible for arrears incurred by a partner’s actions and refuse rehousing until there is a repayment arrangement.

One of the recommendations in the working group’s report aimed at helping protect women and children’s rights to remain in their home, is to include a new legislative pre-action requirement at section 14A of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001[5] to ensure that social landlords have fully considered domestic abuse before commencing legal action to recover possession of a property on rent arrears grounds.

The Scottish Social Housing Charter contains standards and outcomes that social landlords should aim to achieve when performing their housing activities.[6] The equalities outcome requires social landlords to perform all aspects of their housing services so that every tenant and other customer has their individual needs and rights recognised, is treated fairly and with respect, and receives fair access to housing and housing services.

Further information about the background, rationale and policy intention behind the Bill as a whole and the individual measures are set out in the Policy Memorandum which accompanies the Bill. The Bill, Policy Memorandum and other accompanying documents are available from the Scottish Parliament website and are linked to from this Bill webpage^[7].