Rent reviews (Scotland)
Contents
Private residential tenancies
Landlords and tenants usually agree between themselves the rent to be paid.
Rent increases
If you want to increase the rent you must give the tenant at least 3 months' written notice in the correct form required by law.
The notice period begins on the date the tenant gets the notice, and ends 3 months after that date. If you send the rent increase notice to your tenant by post or email, you must allow the tenant 48 hours to receive it. This delivery time should be factored into the amount of notice you give your tenant.
You can only increase the rent once in a year so once increased you must wait 12 months before it can be increased again.
If your tenant thinks the rent increase is too high, they may contact a rent officer within 21 days of receiving your notice. They must tell you if they are doing this. The rent officer has the power to decide what the rent for the property should be and can vary the rent up or down.
If you or your tenant disagrees with the rent officer's decision you can ask them to reconsider it, or appeal to The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber), who will make a final decision.
This may agree with the amount set by the rent officer or be higher or lower. If you want to appeal to the Tribunal, you must do this within 14 days of the rent officer's decision.
Illegal charges
Other than the rent, you can only ask your tenant to pay a deposit. This must not be more than two months' rent. You may not charge the tenant for providing written tenancy terms or any other information that you have a duty to provide. It's a criminal offence to make your tenant pay any other administration fees, premiums or additional charges, even if refundable.
Rent pressure zones
If a local council thinks rents are rising too much in a certain area, they can apply to the Scottish Government to have the area designated as a rent pressure zone.
This means a cap is set on how much rents can increase for existing tenants each year in that area.
Local councils can apply to have an area turned into a rent pressure zone if they can prove that:
- rents in the area are rising too much;
- the rent rises are causing problems for the tenants; and
- the local council is coming under pressure to provide housing or subsidise the cost of housing as a result.
Scottish Ministers must consult landlords' and tenants' representatives before they make any area a rent pressure zone.
Any cap set by Scottish Ministers will be at least inflation plus 1%. Inflation is measured by the consumer price index (CPI). The cap can last for up to five years and will apply to existing tenants only.
If your property is in a rent pressure zone, you can apply to a rent officer for an additional amount of rent to reflect any improvements you have made to the property.
These improvements don't include any repairs or maintenance, decorative work or any work done that was entirely or partly paid for by the tenant.
After you apply to the rent officer, they will send a copy of the application to your tenant. They will have 14 days to respond. Before the rent officer decides on the amount you can add to the rent, they will send you and the tenant a draft of the proposed decision. If you want to respond to this, you have 14 days. The tenant will then get a copy of your response, and have 14 days to reply. The rent officer has to take all responses into account when coming up with a decision. The rent officer's decision is final and can't be appealed.
Replacing rent pressure zones with rent control areas
Since 1 April 2026, local authorities have an obligation to assess rent conditions in their area and submit a report to Scottish Ministers recommending whether rent control is necessary in any part of their area. They have until May 2027 to do this.
As part of the process, landlords can be asked to disclose how much rent their tenants pay (and possibly other information about the tenancy).
The Scottish Ministers can then designate an area as a rent control area if it's considered necessary and proportionate. If they do, rules will then regulate rent increases (which will be stricter than the current rules for rent pressure zone) and the advertisement of rental properties in the rent control area.