Scottish tenants brace for rent hikes and evictions

Scottish tenants are facing a looming crisis in the private rented sector as emergency protections against rent hikes and evictions expire on 31 March, campaigners have warned.

The Scottish government has “in effect rubber-stamped rent increases from April”, Ruth Gilbert, the national campaigns chair of the Scotland-wide tenants’ union Living Rent told the Guardian newspaper.

She said transitional measures were inadequate and confusing, leaving many tenants unaware of their legal rights.

A 3% cap on all in-tenancy rent increases and protections against eviction were introduced in September 2022 as a temporary response to the cost-of-living crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The measures were led by the Scottish National Party’s governing partners, the Scottish Greens.

Notices of rent increases of between 30% and 60%

Living Rent said it had already seen cases of tenants being served with notices of rent increases of between 30% and 60% before the cap ends, even though they have a right to a three-month notice period from 1 April.

Ms Gilbert said: “We’re also worried about the scale of evictions, because if you can’t afford your rent hike then that is an eviction whether you call it one or not.

“Particularly across the central belt in Glasgow and Edinburgh, people are already paying well over half their take-home pay on rent.”

The Scottish government proposed changes to the process for rent adjudication last month, which are meant to bridge the gap between the end of emergency protections and the housing bill becoming law.

The bill includes a long-term system of rent controls and new rights for tenants and is expected to have its first debate before the summer recess.

‘Rents spiral out of control’

Ms Gilbert said: “Over the last decade, we’ve had rents spiral out of control.

“Rents increased 80% in a decade in Glasgow: those figures are astronomical and if rents are really going to become affordable there needs to be a mechanism to reverse this. That’s our vision.”

The changes introduce a complex formula for assessing rent rises against market rates, but Living Rent said tenants had poor experiences with the adjudication process.

The housing bill has been delayed, and campaigners anticipate strong resistance from landlords – a group of landlords’ bodies launched a judicial review of the original rent cap, which they lost.

Campaigners say they will monitor closely when the bill starts its passage through Holyrood, with Ms Gilbert saying that along with the permanent controls, some kind of retroactive mechanism is needed.

She points out that the mechanism should be like that suggested for London by the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, to bring rents down.

Share This Article