Information for private landlords

Landlord and tenancy support

Short Term Housing Support is a service that helps tenants of both social and private housing with a range of tasks, to help them to sustain their tenancies. It's a service provided by Fife Council through several partner organisations, such as Link Living and The Richmond Fellowship Scotland.

Tasks that a tenant can receive help with include:

• Debt
• Budgeting
• Healthy living
• Household skills

To receive this service, referrals must be made to the Council. Landlords or tenants can contact us at STHS@fife.gov.uk  or by calling 07783807485, to request an application form or to get further advice.

Home Energy

Cosy Kingdom is a free and impartial energy and debt advice service, available to all landlords across Fife.

It’s a partnership between Greener Kirkcaldy, St Andrews Environmental Network and Citizens Advice & Rights Fife. More energy advice can be found online, on our Benefits and Money Advice section.

Private Sector Housing Options Officers

The Private Sector Housing Options Officers assist with helping Landlords and Tenants to sustain tenancies, through advice, signposting and referrals to partners and services.

Enquires can be sent to the team via email, at HousingOptions.PRS@fife.gov.uk

Neighbour issues - Anti-social behaviour 

As a private landlord, it is your responsibility for resolving any antisocial behaviour that happens in and around the home. This means if your tenants or their visitors are causing trouble, you have to try to put a stop to it.

Antisocial behaviour means behaving in a way which causes, or is likely to cause, alarm and distress to the community. It can include:

• abuse
• drug dealing
• vandalism and graffiti
• noise disturbances (loud music, noisy parties or shouting)
  • Domestic noise refers to amplified noise, noisy parties, DIY, playing musical instruments or dogs barking etc
  • Non-domestic noise refers to commercial noise, construction noise, car alarms etc
• threatening or violent behaviour

Antisocial behaviour is not always a crime but incidents of violence, suspected drug dealing, and hate crime should always be reported to the Police.

There are many ways you can receive a complaint of antisocial behaviour. These include:

• directly from the neighbours – your contact details are publicly available once you register as a landlord
• from the agent that manages the property
• from the local authority (if the neighbour has contacted them)
• from the tenants themselves

If you receive a complaint about your tenant/s or visitors to the property, you should take steps to resolve this. This includes:

• sending them a letter, explaining what you've been told and asking them to change their behaviour
• arranging a time to visit them and discuss the problem
• finding out the circumstances, understanding what the issue is and what the options are to fix it
• agreeing with your tenants what will change, recording it in writing and making sure you and your tenants both have a copy
• keeping a log of what steps you've taken, in case you need to prove later that you've tried to resolve it

It is also important to provide the complainant with an update. This can be once the complaint has been resolved or to let them know you're still in the process of resolving the complaint.

If you keep getting complaints after you've tried to resolve the situation with the tenant, you should consider what to do next.

Your options include:

• talking to your tenants again and telling them there are still issues
• asking the council to apply for an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) for the tenants or their visitors
• going to court to get an interdict to prevent your tenants behaving in a certain way
• evicting your tenants

If you don't do anything to stop your tenants' antisocial behaviour, we can take action. This can start with an antisocial behaviour notice (ASBN), which tells you, as the landlord, what you have to do to stop the problem. It may also affect your Landlord Registration status.

If you believe your tenant/s is suffering from anti-social behaviour by a neighbour or residents within the area, you should report this to us.

More information and advice on the correct way to report any issues can be found on our Anti-social behaviour page.