Members of the Scottish Parliament have given the green light to the second reading of the Private Rented Housing Bill and landlords across Scotland will be well advised to scrutinise the new bill to ascertain exactly what it demands from them.
The bill proposes to weed out that group of landlords who are letting the rest of them down and will have the power to hit them with huge fines and stop them operating as landlords altogether.
The bill will give Local Authorities the scope to tighten their regulations around landlords passing the “fit and proper person” test and will increase the maximum fine for landlords transgressing licensing and registration offences in homes of multiple occupation up to £50,000. Landlords do not legally require landlord insurance and so this does not come under any legislation but most landlords will see the sense in organising protection of their property without being prompted.
The architect of the bill, Housing Minister Alex Neil, said “The people we have to tackle is the small minority, very often geographically concentrated, who give landlordism a bad name.
“But at the same time we want to ensure that the regulation being put in place is proportionate, while protecting the rights of tenants and landlords and to develop a longer term strategy for the sector’s growth.
“I believe the Bill plays its part by giving local authorities greater powers to tackle bad practice and penalise unlawful operators, as well as improving tenants and landlords’ awareness of their rights and responsibilities.”
Mr Neil said the legislation gives Local Authorities the powers to once and for all get rid of the rogue landlord and will help respectable landlords and tenants to get on with providing decent accommodation to those in the private housing sector.