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Meeting of the Parliament 04 June 2013

04 Jun 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Private Rentals (Deposits)

Burgess, Margaret SNP Cunninghame South Watch on SPTV

Landlords must lodge deposits with an approved scheme—that is why the schemes were set up and those are the rules of the schemes. If a landlord does not do that, the landlord is breaking the law. As I move on, I will cover some of the points that Patrick Harvie made about how the law can be enforced.

I believe that, as Kezia Dugdale and others said, good information and advice can lead to an improvement in consumers’ confidence and in the quality of the service that they receive. Like Patrick Harvie, I think that it was important that the Evening Times highlighted the Glasgow Central CAB’s work. Like Vincent Chudy, the manager of that CAB, I urge all private tenants to check that their deposit has been paid to one of the three approved schemes. All of us who are elected to the Parliament should highlight that at every opportunity.

We encourage tenants to think of themselves as consumers who can raise standards in the sector. That is one reason why we recently introduced the tenant information pack, which provides key information for tenants and landlords in an easy-to-read format and includes information on tenants’ rights to deposit protection. As Marco Biagi mentioned, the launch of the pack is supported by the new Renting Scotland website, which is co-funded by the Scottish Government and Shelter Scotland. The website rentingscotland.org is an industry-wide information hub that offers practical guides for tenants and landlords. I have checked it out and can confirm that it provides key information and—an important point for someone like me—is user friendly and easy to access.

I will answer some of the questions that were asked. Clearly, private landlords have a duty to protect tenants’ deposits under one of the schemes. If the landlord fails to do so, the tenant can apply to the sheriff court to enforce the law and the court has the power to fine the landlord up to three times the amount of the deposit. Local authorities can take such a breach of housing law into account when considering the fit-and-proper-person test for landlord registration and for the licensing of houses in multiple occupation.

Last week, I launched “A Place to Stay, A Place to Call Home”, which is the first strategy since devolution that is solely for the private rented sector. The strategy sets out what further action we will take

“to improve the quality of property management, condition and service”

to deliver a sector that works for tenants and landlords. We want to work with good professional landlords to help them to prosper, but we are also determined to take action against the minority of landlords who damage the image of the sector and our wider communities.

The strategy proposes a more focused regulatory system for the sector. We will identify new ways of targeting tougher enforcement action against the worst landlords using existing legislation. On the point that Malcolm Chisholm made, we will also look at a tie-in between the tenancy deposit scheme and registration. The fit-and-proper-person test can cover a number of things. For example, if someone was illegally evicted and lost access to the property as a result—as can happen—the local authority should look closely at whether the landlord is a fit and proper person to be a landlord. We will look at that kind of tough enforcement action using existing legislation.