Information for private landlords
Changes to Housing legislation
There are three important changes under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 coming into force on the 6 October 2026 that you must know about. These are:
Awaab’s Law
New legal duties for landlords to investigate and repair damp and mould hazards, ensuring the health and safety of the tenant within specific timescales. Guidance has been published to help understand the changes:
Inheriting a private residential tenancy when the tenant dies
The time that a qualifying person needs to have lived in a private residential tenancy to inherit to the tenancy on the death of the tenant will reduce from 12 to 6 months.
Wrongful termination payments
The amount that can be awarded by the First-tier Tribunal to a tenant where their private residential tenancy has been wrongfully terminated will be increased to between 3 and 36 months’ rent.
Further information about these changes and other measures in the Housing Scotland Act 2025 is available on: Private renting - gov.scot
The Private Rented Sector Model Tenancy agreement and Easy Read and Statutory Terms: Supporting Notes will be updated to reflect these changes, and these will be on Setting up a private tenancy agreement - mygov.scot from 6 October 2026.
