Your Scottish tenancy rights: how the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 affects them

A new law called the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 came into force on 1 November 2019. It affects your rights by changing the Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreement.

• Housing (Scotland) Act 2014
• Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreement (SSTA)

Changes to your household

To protect your tenancy rights, you must tell us about any changes to your household. This includes anyone:

• who has already moved in to your home
• who has already moved out of your home
• or will in the future.

If we are unaware of them, you must let us know. Write to:

Housing enquiries
Midlothian House
40-46 Buccleuch Street
Dalkeith
EH22 1DN

The time period has changed for when you are allowed to:

• sublet your property
• add a joint tenant
• pass your tenancy to someone else (Assignation)
• take over a tenancy after death (Succession)

Our consent as landlord has always been required for the above.

But the tenant, and the person receiving the tenancy, must now have been resident at the property for at least 12 months before any of these actions can occur. (Previously it was 6 months).

Time spent living in the property will not count if you haven't notified us of a change.

We can refuse permission to assign a tenancy, for reasons listed under Section 32 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001.

But the new 2014 Act provides two new reasons why we can turn down an application to pass your tenancy to someone else:

• where the person being passed the tenancy would not get priority under our Allocations Policy
• where the home would be under occupied.