News of a change from over the border. From 1st April landlords will have to notify the local authority in a standard form when they raise proceedings for possession. This will give effect to s. 11 of the Homelessness etc (Scotland) Act 2003. Notice can be posted or sent electronically to the local authority.
The Notice to Local Authorities (Scotland) Regulations 2008 SSI 2008/324 details the information that a landlord is required to give:
- Details of landlord and their legal representative
- Landlord’s registration reference
- Tenant’s name
- Address of property
- Date tenancy started
- Details of which court and when proceedings were raised
- What statutory provision proceedings are being raised under
There are no direct sanctions for landlords who don’t comply, but discussions are ongoing. The requirement to give notice is a small change, but it may make quite a difference to the abilities of local authorities to plan ahead and for succesful interventions to be made through e.g. rent deposit schemes so that homelessness can be prevented.
Just by way of a further update on matters Scottish, but without doing a full post on it, the Housing Supply Task Force has today published a report entitled Housing Supply in Scotland. The main recommendations are around:
Identifying alternative methods of funding infrastructure to accelerate construction of housing and other major projects;
Ensuring speedy implementation of planning system reforms;
Establishing a framework to assist the house building industry return to full capacity swiftly once markets improve;
Making better use of public sector land for housing.