During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, legislation was introduced to give security to tenants who were struggling financially. This included stopping all evictions, requiring new pre-action protocols to be followed and making grounds for eviction discretionary. As we came out of the pandemic and it became business as usual, new legislation was passed in all UK countries as part of the Covid recovery plan. In this article we will take a look at Scotland’s Covid Bill which will come into force from the 1st of October 2022.
What is the Legislation?
The Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill passed stage 3 of its implementation on the 28th June 2022. It contains 6 distinct parts from creating powers to respond to public health emergencies, new powers to allow ministers to help respond to emergencies with a focus on schools, colleges and universities to electronic communication, evictions from properties, timings for the Bill and when the bill will come into force. We will focus on the parts of the Bill which deal with rented accommodation and evictions.
What is changing?
The new Bill is amending the The Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 with a specific focus on the grounds for eviction. Under the 2016 Act, there were certain grounds which were mandatory, i.e. the first tier tribunal had no discretion to refuse the eviction and permission for the eviction had to be automatically granted. These were the following grounds:
- Landlord intends to sell – Ground 1
- Property to be sold by lender – Ground 2
- Landlord intends to refurbish – Ground 3
- Landlord intends to live in the property – Ground 4
- Landlord intends to use the property for non-residential purposes – Ground 6
- The property is required for religious purposes – Ground 7
- The tenant is not an employee – Ground 8
- The tenant is not occupying the property – Ground 10
- Rent arrears – Ground 12
- Criminal behaviour – Ground 13
- Anti-social behaviour – Ground 14
So, under the 2016 Act of the 18 allowable grounds for repossession of a rented property, 14 were mandatory and, if shown to be valid, allowed the first-tier tribunal no discretion to dismiss the eviction notice.
Under the new Bill all 18 grounds for repossession are now at the discretion of the first-tier tribunal, so there are effectively no mandatory grounds for eviction. The new Bill also carries on the requirement for a landlord to follow the correct pre-action protocol before taking the case to the courts.
As enacted the requirements laid down in the Bill are enforceable until 30th November 2023 but the bill does allow ministers to extend this on a yearly basis until the 30th November 2025 as they see fit.
In summary
This new bill extends the changes to eviction rules which were brought in during the covid pandemic and means that landlords must continue to follow the appropriate pre-action protocols and also removes all mandatory grounds for eviction meaning that the tribunals have discretion to refuse evictions.
