Hansard

Good morning. I appreciate the opportunity to give evidence on the draft Private Rented Housing Panel (Landlord Applications) (Scotland) Regulations 2015. The repairing standard that is set out in chapter 4 of part 1 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 covers the legal and contractual obligations on private landlords to ensure that a property meets a minimum physical standard. However, despite having a statutory right of entry in relation to the repairing standard, landlords have expressed concern about difficulties in obtaining entry to their properties to carry out inspections and repairs. Those difficulties might arise for a variety of reasons. For example, the tenant might have been repeatedly unavailable to grant access, despite making arrangements to do so, or they might simply have refused access. Section 35 of the Private Rented Housing (Scotland) Act 2011, which is due to come into force on 1 December 2015, will enable a private landlord to apply to the Private Rented Housing Panel for assistance in exercising their legal right of entry in connection with the repairing standard. If a decision is made to assist the landlord, the panel member must liaise with the tenant and the landlord to agree a date and time for the landlord to be given access. In the majority of cases, the independent panel member’s intervention is expected to result in the landlord being allowed into the property, without the need for legal action to enforce entry. The regulations set out the content of the applications to be made by landlords and make further provision on decisions with regard to those applications. They should be considered in the context of the wider package of measures introduced by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014, including new measures to strengthen the repairing standard and broaden access to the PRHP by enabling third-party applications to enforce the standard. I believe that the time is now right to implement the provisions and help landlords to comply with their repairing standard duties, and the regulations form part of the implementation of the wider package of measures that, as I have said, will all come into force on 1 December.