Tell your subtenant they need to leave

This form will help you make a 'Subtenant Notice to Leave'. This is a legal document which tells your subtenant they must leave your property.

A subtenant is a person who is renting a property, or section of a property, from your tenant.

If your subtenant started renting from your tenant on or after 1 December 2017, they're likely to have a private residential tenancy.

If the tenancy agreement started before 1 December 2017 they do not have a private residential tenancy and you should not use this notice (unless the tenancy was converted to a private residential tenancy on or after 1 December 2017).

Find out more about what to do if your tenant does not have a private residential tenancy.

How to use a 'Subtenant Notice to Leave'

By giving your subtenant a Notice to Leave, you are telling them:

• that they must leave the property
• the date they should leave the property by
• why you are asking them to leave (also known as grounds)

If you're asking your subtenant to leave, it will be because you are asking your tenant (likely to be your subtenant's landlord) to leave at the same time.

Notice period

You'll need to give your subtenant the right amount of time to leave the property and tell them under which grounds you are asking them to leave. The amount of time a subtenant is given before they must leave a property is called 'notice'.

The amount of notice you must give your tenant will depend on the eviction ground used.

Amount of notice

All tenants are entitled to get 28 days’ notice. Some tenants will be able to get 84 days’ notice.

How much notice the landlord has to give the tenant depends on both of these:

1. which of the eviction grounds the landlord is using to end the agreement
2. how long the tenant has lived in the property

28 days' notice (or 4 weeks)

The landlord must give the tenant 28 days’ notice to leave if:

• on the date that the tenant receives the Notice to Leave, the tenancy has been running for 6 months or less

Or:

• the only eviction ground(s) in the landlord's notice to leave is that the tenant is one of these:
  • is not occupying the property as the tenant's only or main home
  • has breached the agreement
  • is in rent arrears for 3 or more months in a row
  • has been found guilty, in a court, of certain crimes
  • has been involved in antisocial behaviour
  • has been involved with a person who has been found guilty of certain crimes or has been involved in antisocial behaviour

84 days' notice (or 12 weeks)

In all other cases, the landlord must give the tenant 84 days' notice if both these apply:

• on the date that the tenant receives the landlord's notice, the tenancy has been running for more than 6 months
• the landlord's notice includes any of the eviction ground(s) not mentioned above

Giving the notice to your tenant

If you give your subtenant this notice by recorded post or by email, you will need to delay the start date of the notice period by 2 days to give your tenant time to receive it. For example, you may send a Notice to Leave on 1 June which tells the tenant that their notice period begins on 3 June.

Should you choose to deliver the notice by hand, you do not need to delay the start of the notice period.

You should attach a copy of your tenant's Notice to Leave to the Subtenant Notice to Leave which you give your subtenant.

If the subtenant's behaviour is the cause of them being asked to leave (for example, if they are behaving antisocially), it is the responsibility of the subtenant's landlord (your tenant or mid-tenant) to serve them with a Notice to Leave. This is not something you can do if you are the head landlord.

Refusing to leave the property

If your subtenant ignores the Notice to Leave or refuses to leave the property you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber to issue an eviction notice.

Create a 'Subtenant Notice to Leave'

To complete the form you will need:

• details about your grounds for asking a subtenant to leave
• evidence to support these details, if you have it
• your subtenant's details
• the end of the notice period - this means the last date before your subtenant must leave

If you're evicting joint subtenants you can add their names to the same Subtenant Notice to Leave.

If you're evicting any subtenants who aren't on the same tenancy agreement you will have to give each subtenant their own Notice to Leave. This means you will have to complete this form more than once.

You can view a read-only copy of the Subtenant Notice to Leave on gov.scot.