Monday, 5 June 2023
The Scottish Government has announced that subject to the approval of parliament, it will extend the provisions of the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 to 31 March 2024. This is the legislation which introduced a cap of 3% on most rent increases and a delay of 6 months on the enforcement of most eviction orders granted by the tribunal. This is the final extension permitted by the 2022 Act. There are no plans to change... read more
Wednesday, 31 May 2023
The most significant legislation to impact our industry last year and going forwards is “The cost of living Act 2022” and below I give a brief outline of how this will affect your properties. Please get in touch to discuss further as this legislation only applies to PRT (private residential tenancy) contracts and older SAT (short assured tenancies) can have a greater flexibility on rent increases if they meet certain criteria. Cost of... read more
Wednesday, 17 May 2023
EPC’s are still in the spotlight with many landlords concerned about the as yet unconfirmed minimum EPC requirement date that will be enforced. Both Scotland and England are due to require a minimum of C as an EPC in the future. The Scottish government intends to introduce a requirement for PRS (private rented sector) properties to have an EPC rating of C at change of tenancy from 2025. All PRS properties will then be required to... read more
Monday, 1 May 2023
This guidance incorporates all the elements of the Repairing Standard which private landlords are required to comply with from 1 March 2024. It has been prepared early to provide private landlords with a clear understanding of what is new and expected of them from 2024. It also includes all elements where a duty already exists. The aim of the guidance is to equip private landlords with a full picture of what they should be working towards to... read more
Monday, 17 June 2019
We recently had a new client come to us for advice following a summons to the First-tier Tribunal. Amongst other Repairing standard issues the landlord had not put the tenants' deposit in the tenancy deposit scheme for over two years. In a panic, at being summoned for a repairing standard issue, the landlord had quickly lodged the deposit to show the tribunal that they were now complying with all legislation. Their tenant who had been... read more
Friday, 18 January 2019
Enforcement of deposit regulations 16 January 2019 There is no doubt that the First-tier Tribunal Housing & Property Chamber (FTT) taking over jurisdiction of private rented sector cases from the Sheriff Courts has led to a significant increase in landlords and tenants taking legal action against each other. One area this can be seen very clearly is in the number of cases tenants are bringing against their landlords for failing to comply... read more
Friday, 18 January 2019
Changes to the Repairing Standard The government announced last year that following a consultation in the spring of 2017 it would be making changes to the Repairing Standard. This is the standard of repair that all properties in the private rented sector must adhere to. The government has now laid draft legislation before parliament to introduce the following changes: From 1 March 2019 Repairing Standard amended to: – Include a... read more
Thursday, 23 August 2018
8 Common Mistakes To Be Aware Of When Renting Out Your Property If you’ve got a property that you’re unsure what to do with but don’t want to sell, especially if you’ve inherited it, a great way of using it as a source of extra income can be to rent it out. If the property is located in a highly-desired area, you should be able to demand a fairly high amount of rent. However, there are a lot of different aspects to renting out... read more
Friday, 1 September 2017
5 Decorating Ideas for Your Teenage Son's Bedroom Eventually, kids get to an age where they want to feel grown up, be grown up, and be treated like an adult. They start to re-evaluate their possessions and whether they would be deemed ‘babyish’ or not. It is inevitable that they will want their room to reflect their desire to be grown up, and why shouldn’t they? Chances are their bedroom currently sports the design they wanted when they... read more
Friday, 1 September 2017
Moving into your first home is an exciting and scary time. There’s lots going on, many things you need to finalise and a lot of packing to do! When taking all your possessions to your first home, it’s much easier to think about all the items you do own, rather than what you’re missing. Excluding the bigger more obvious items that you’ll probably think of, such as a sofa or a bed, we’ve gathered a list of useful household items that... read more
