Scottish tenant protection measures expired

The temporary in-tenancy rent cap and moratorium on the enforcement of evictions in Scotland expired on 31 March 2024, the Scottish Government's cost of living analytical report confirms¹. The measures had been passed by the Scottish Parliament in early October 2022 under the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022¹. The Scottish Government had announced a temporary rent cap and ban on evictions for most tenants from 6 September 2022².

Following the expiry of the measures on 31 March 2024, the rent adjudication process in the private rented sector has been modified for a period of one year¹. For private tenants, a rent increase on or after 1 April 2024 requires the landlord to send a rent increase notice, and a tenant who considers the increase too high can challenge it, with a rent officer working out the correct amount based on the value of the property and the current rent³.

The cap itself changed during its lifetime. It was set at 0%, meaning in most cases a landlord could not ask for an increase until 1 April 2023, after which the cap increased to 3%². Some tenancy types were not subject to the cap, such as a tenancy that started before 1989, called a regulated tenancy, or a lodger agreement where the tenant lives with the landlord².

Where a private landlord could show that mortgage interest payments, insurance premiums or service charges had increased, the tenant was to pay only 50% of the landlord's increased costs up to a maximum of 3% of the current rent, rising from 1 April 2023 to a maximum of 6%².

The report places the housing measures in a wider period of price pressure. UK CPI inflation rose from under 0.5% in February 2021 to a peak of 11.1% in October 2022, the highest UK rate for 41 years, before falling back to the Bank of England's 2% target by June 2024¹. The Bank of England raised interest rates 14 consecutive times from 0.1% in December 2021 to 5.25% in August 2023, then reduced them twice in 2024, in August and November, from 5.25% to 4.75%¹. Annual food price inflation reached 19.2% in March 2023, the highest rate since 1977¹. The fuel poverty rate increased from 24.6% in 2019 to 31.0% in 2022¹.

Why it matters for households

Tenants in Scotland's private rented sector lost the in-tenancy cap on rent increases and the moratorium on eviction enforcement from 31 March 2024¹. For private tenants, the modified rent adjudication route applied for one year from that date, meaning a rent increase notice could be challenged and assessed by a rent officer¹.

The ending of the measures does not remove the underlying rules on rent arrears. A private landlord cannot evict for rent arrears without a Tribunal order if the tenancy began on or after 1 December 2017, and new proceedings for private tenancies started on or after that date are dealt with by the Tribunal⁵. Where rent arrears built up since 7 April 2020, a landlord should try to help before trying to evict³. For social tenants, pre-action requirements apply where the landlord is a council or housing association⁴. The report notes that the cost of living crisis had a detrimental effect on households and that low income households were particularly adversely affected¹.

What happens next

The report states that the rent adjudication process in the private rented sector was modified for a period of one year following the expiry of the measures on 31 March 2024¹. No further change to that arrangement is reported in these sources.