Housing Scotland Act

Updating your tenancy: have you told us of any changes?

Housing (Scotland) Act 2025

This document explains the main changes introduced by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025. The Act introduces significant changes designed to strengthen tenant rights, improve homelessness prevention and provide greater protections for people experiencing domestic abuse.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 6 November 2025 and has now become an enactment of the Scottish Parliament. The Act, at its core, attempts to strike a balance between enhanced legal rights for tenants, whilst balancing the rights and obligations of landlords. The changes are not yet fully in force, and many will require additional regulations before they are implemented- this page will be updated throughout the process.

This factsheet explains the main changes contained in the Act.

For Council Tenants

We are updating our Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreement to reflect recent changes in housing legislation and the Scottish Government's New Model Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreement 2026. Tenants are not required to sign a new tenancy agreement following this update.

The tenancy agreement sets out the rights and responsibilities of tenants and the Council as landlord. The updated agreement includes changes relating to tenancy rights, succession, how notices can be served, repairs, damp and mould, domestic abuse provisions, and other tenancy conditions.

These changes are intended to make sure our tenancy agreement remains clear, up to date and legally compliant. They do not remove your statutory tenancy rights.

Tenants are encouraged to read the updated tenancy agreement and supporting information. This explains what has changed and why.

2026-07-24 - Tenancy Agreement Update Easy Read (Word doc, 53 KB)(opens new window)

If you have any questions about the proposed changes, or need the information in another format or language, please contact us via any of the links below:

Contact your Housing Officer - West Lothian Council

What does the Act aim to do?

The Act aims to:-

Improve protections for tenants.
Introduce long-term rent controls where appropriate.
Strengthen homelessness prevention.
Address damp and mould in homes
Improve regulation of landlords and property factors.

Rent Controls in the Private Rented Sector

Local authorities will be able to introduce Rent Control Areas (RCAs) if they identify problems in their local rental market. A Rent Control Area (RCA) is a geographical area designated where legal limits on rent increases apply to private let tenancies. The council will be required to submit an initial report to the Scottish Government by 31^st May 2027 and a decision on whether a RCA will be imposed will follow thereafter.

Evictions

The Act strengthens tenants' rights regarding evictions; when deciding whether to grant and/or enforce an eviction order, the courts (or tribunal for the private sector) must consider whether it would be reasonable to delay the eviction. The circumstances of both tenants and landlords will be considered. The Act requires the courts to take reasonable consideration of various factors, such as:

Financial hardship
Health impacts
Disability
Terminal illness

Keeping Pets

Tenants will have stronger rights to request permission for pets and where pet permission is refused, tenants will be able to appeal if they believe permission has been unfairly refused. In considering pet permission, landlords must:

Respond in writing.
Give reasons if they refuse to grant permission for the keeping of pets.
Not unreasonably withhold consent.

Damp, Mould and Repairs

The Scottish Government will introduce strict, legally binding timescales for both social and private landlords to address damp and mould- this is Scotland's equivalent of Awaab's Law. This focuses on improving responses to damp and mould issues. For landlords, this introduces specific and enforceable duties in relation to damp and mould that present a risk to health.

Once a landlord becomes aware that a property is or may be affected by damp or mould, they must:

Investigate within 10 working days
Provide the tenant with a written summary of the investigation within 3 working days of completing it
Commence any necessary repair work within 5 working days of concluding that work is required

If circumstances out-with the landlord's control prevent compliance within these timescales, the landlord must explain the reasons to the tenant, set out a revised timeframe and take reasonable steps to minimise the risk in the meantime.

Please refer to https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/prevent-damp for more information.

Succession Rights

Succession to a property is the right to transfer the primary tenancy provided qualifying criteria are met. The qualifying period for someone to take over a tenancy after another tenant dies will reduce from 12 months to 6 months. This applies to both Private Residential Tenancies (PRTs) and Scottish Secure Tenancies (SSTs).

Delivery of Notices

Social landlords will no longer need to use recorded delivery for notices issued to tenants. Notices can be delivered by other methods if there is proof that they were sent.

This means notices can be included as Email and Electronic communication for example. The communication method must be agreed between the landlord and tenant.

Homelessness Prevention

Public services will have new responsibilities to help prevent homelessness- the new "Ask and Act" approach means organisations must ask about housing circumstances and help people access support. This duty extends more widely and includes:

Local authorities
Police services
Health services

Councils will also be required to intervene earlier, assisting households up to six months (as opposed to 2 months) before homelessness becomes imminent.

Domestic Abuse

The definition of abuse has been expanded to include:

Violence
Harassment
Threatening behaviour
Other conduct that causes fear, alarm, distress, or physical or mental harm

Social landlords must:

Consider whether domestic abuse has contributed to rent arrears.
Provide information about support services.
Have and follow a domestic abuse policy.

Local authorities must also have a Domestic Abuse Policy in place going forward.

Scottish Housing Regulator

The process for reviewing or appealing decisions made by the regulator will be simplified. Tenants and landlords will also be able to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal for an independent review.

Property Factors

Stronger rules will apply to property factors. People may be barred from registration if they have convictions relating to:

Sexual offences
Housing law
Landlord and tenant law
Property law
Debt law

Similar to other functions (such as Landlords Registration and Short Term lets), Property factors will also have to display their registration number on communications such as emails and websites.