Renfrewshire Council

When you become a private landlord

There are rules and regulations that must be met when letting out a private property or becoming a private landlord.

You can find out information about private rented sector reforms on the Scottish Government website.

If you fail to meet any of your legal obligations as a Landlord, your tenant can raise this with the Housing and Property Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland.

Where the Housing and Property Chamber establish that the landlord has not met the requirements of the repairing standard or complied with their duties set out in relevant housing law, they can take enforcement action which might include serving a Rent Penalty Notice.

Landlords who fail to maintain their private rented property risk being removed from the register of landlords.

See the Housing and Property Chamber website for more information about your responsibilities for repairs.

The following Private Residential Tenancy YouTube videos may be helpful

• Information video 1 - The Private Residential Tenancy
• Information video 2 - Model Tenancy Agreement

Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs)

If you rent your property out to three or more unrelated people, you will need a Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) licence. Before an HMO licence can be granted, you must be able to show that:

• you meet your responsibilities in relation to common repairs
• all property is clean and well maintained
• all relevant gas and electrical certification is up to date, and
• fire escape routes are well maintained

Fire safety

As a landlord, you are responsible for your rented property being compliant with fire and safety standards.

The Council has enforcement powers for safety standards of homes if a landlord doesn't install the correct systems in their rented properties, as it poses a safety risk to tenants.

If you make an insurance claim and your property is not compliant, your claim may fail.

Every Scottish home must have:

• 1 smoke alarm in the living room or the room you use most
• 1 smoke alarm in every hallway or landing
• 1 heat alarm in the kitchen

All smoke and heat alarms should be mounted on the ceiling and be interlinked.

Interlinked means if one alarm goes off, they all go off, so you will always hear an alarm wherever you are in the property.

If there's a boiler, fire, heater or flue in any room, there must also be a tamper-proof carbon monoxide detector in that room. The detector alarm does not need to be linked to the fire alarm system.

You can read more information about the law on fire and smoke alarms (Scottish Government website).

Antisocial behaviour

All landlords have a responsibility for monitoring and dealing with complaints relating to anti social behaviour by their tenants or their visitors. The Council has a Community Safety Service which investigates complaints of anti social behaviour.

Details of the Community Safety Service are available on the Community Safety webpage.

Evictions

Landlords cannot evict tenants from their property unless they follow certain legal procedures.

Legislation under Section 11 of the Homelessness Persons Act 2003 also requires landlords to notify the council of their intention to evict tenants.

Empty homes

Renfrewshire Council has a More Homes Officer who can work with owners of empty properties to provide assistance and advice to bring properties back into use.

Find out more options for owners of empty homes.