Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2016
The bill as introduced specified a 56-day default notice period for tenancies that had lasted more than six months. Amendments 28 and 29 simply tidy up section 39 in consequence of the amendments at stage 2 and do not in any way change the substance of the provision.
Amendment 30 splits section 41 into two sections. That does not change the effect of the section; the purpose is simply to improve the readability of the bill. The first new section will set out what an eviction order is, and the second will provide further detail about the circumstances in which such an order can be made. Amendment 93 is a consequential amendment.
Where a wrongful-termination order is granted against joint landlords, the first-tier tribunal can specify that each landlord is liable for a particular amount as a penalty. That allows the tribunal to reflect the fact that one of the landlords is more culpable than the others in relation to the wrongful termination. The cumulative total of individual amounts is capped so that the total penalty payable to the tenant will not be more than it would have been if there was one landlord, rather than joint landlords.
At stage 2, the maximum amount payable by a landlord under a wrongful-termination order was increased from three months’ rent to six months’ rent. Amendments 31, 33 and 34 therefore update the total amount recoverable from joint landlords, so that that is also set at six months’ rent.
Schedule 1 sets out the types of tenancy that cannot be private residential tenancies and includes tenancies of agricultural land that meet the conditions that are set out in the schedule. The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill creates two new types of tenancy: the modern limited duration tenancy and the repairing tenancy. Amendment 46 inserts the new tenancies into schedule 1, so that they are excluded on the same basis as the existing types of agricultural tenancy are excluded.
Amendment 50 ensures that the provision relating to trust ownership applies only where a person is acting as landlord in his or her capacity as a trustee. If the landlord happens to be a trustee under a trust, but that is unrelated to the let property, amendment 50 ensures that the trust provisions do not apply.
Amendment 51 replaces an existing reference to particular types of trust beneficiary with one overarching reference to trust beneficiaries. The amendment in no way widens the scope of the provisions but simply uses more modern language.
I move amendment 6.