It looks as if Scottish landlords are going to have to comply with tenancy deposit protection fairly soon as regulations have now been laid before the Scottish parliament – you can see them here.
I was alerted to this by Kevin Firth when I interviewed him for the Landlord Law Podcast (which is due to be published soon).
However here are a few interesting differences between the new Scottish (draft) regulations and the current English/Welsh ones.
- There will only be a custodial scheme. The regulations do not make provision for any insured based schemes (such as our TDS and My Deposits schemes)
- The landlord / agent will have 30 days to register the deposit rather than the 14 days here
- It looks as if the application of the regulations will be wider than just for ASTs (or the Scottish equivalent) as here, and will cover more tenancy types.
- Tenants will not be able to apply for the 3x sanction more than three months after the tenancy ends
- I can’t find any section preventing the landlord from obtaining possession (as in the English / Welsh system he can’t obtain possession under s21) until the deposit has been protected
- The sections regarding adjudication provide for a review, unlike the English/Welsh schemes where there is no review
It seems like the government has learned from the English / Welsh experience and is trying to make the regulations clearer. What do you think of them?