Private Residential Tenancies

Your tenant will have a private residential tenancy if their tenancy began on or after 1 December 2017, or was converted to a private residential tenancy on or after that date.

You can only end a private residential tenancy if one of the 18 grounds for eviction applies.

Notice to Leave

To end the tenancy, you must give your tenant a Notice to Leave.

This document tells them which of the eviction grounds applies (the reason why you are asking them to leave), and how long they have before they must move out of the property.

You should also attach supporting evidence which shows the tenant that the reason you are asking them to leave is real.

You must give it to them either by:

• handing it to them
• sending it to them by recorded delivery post at the address of the Let Property
• emailing it to them at their current email address (if you have previously agreed that email is their preferred contact method)

Giving notice

How much notice you need to give your tenant will depend on:

• how long they have lived in the let property
• why you are asking them to leave

If your tenant has lived in the property for six months or less, you must give them at least 28 days' notice. You must also give them 28 days' notice if they've lived there for longer than six months but you're evicting them for one or more of the six reasons below, which relate to the tenant's behaviour (and only for these reasons):

• the tenant is no longer occupying the let property
• the tenant has breached a term of the tenancy agreement
• the tenant is in rent arrears over three consecutive months on the date you apply to the Tribunal for an eviction order
• the tenant has a relevant criminal conviction
• the tenant has engaged in relevant anti-social behaviour
• the tenant associates with a person who has a relevant conviction or has engaged in relevant anti-social behaviour

If your tenant has lived in the property for more than six months, and you are evicting them for any of the other twelve reasons set out in the law (in other words, if it's for a reason that isn't their fault), you must give them 84 days' notice.

The other 12 reasons are:

• the landlord intends to sell the let property
• the let property is to be sold by the mortgage lender
• the landlord intends to refurbish the let property
• the landlord intends to live in the let property
• the landlord's family member intends to live in the let property
• the landlord intends to use the let property for a non-residential purpose
• the let property is required for a religious purpose
• the tenant ceases to be – or fails to become – your employee
• the tenant no longer needs supported accommodation
• the landlord has had their registration refused or revoked
• the landlord's HMO licence has been revoked
• an Overcrowding Statutory Notice has been served on the landlord

Sending the notice

If you send the Notice by recorded delivery post, or by email, the law says you must add an extra two days to the notice period. This is to allow time for the Notice to arrive.

The notices to be used with private residential tenancies, including the Notice to Leave and the Subtenant Notice to Leave, are available on the Scottish Government website as read only downloads. The website also has Guidance Notes for Tenants – you should download these and give them to your tenant with the Notice to Leave, to help them to understand what the Notice means.

You can also create and download a Notice to Leave.

Eviction orders

If you give your tenant a Notice to Leave and they do not move out as soon as the notice period ends, you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) ('the Tribunal' for short) for an eviction order. You must do this within six months of the date you gave to your tenant in the Notice to Leave.

Before submitting an application to the Tribunal for an eviction order, you must inform the local authority of your intention to apply to the Tribunal. There is a certain notice you must use for this. You can get this by contacting your local authority or looking on their website.

When you apply for an eviction order you must give the Tribunal a copy of the Notice to Leave you gave the tenant, stating which of the 18 grounds for eviction you are using. You will also have to give the Tribunal evidence to support the eviction ground you are using.

The Tribunal will consider your case and decide whether the eviction ground exists. 

All eviction grounds are discretionary and the Tribunal will consider whether it is reasonable to grant you an eviction order.

If a tenant has left the property and thinks they have been misled into leaving the property, they can apply to the Tribunal for a 'wrongful termination order'. The Tribunal may make a wrongful termination order if it decides that the landlord:

• misled the Tribunal into giving an eviction order it should not have
• misled the tenant into leaving the property.

An example of a possible wrongful termination would be where the landlord serves notice to leave on the tenant on the ground that they intend to sell the property, but then does not sell the property and instead lets it out to another tenant.

If a wrongful termination order is issued, the landlord will be told to pay the tenant a payment of no more than six months' rent. The local council will also be told about the order being made and will take this into account when deciding if the landlord is a 'fit and proper' person registered to be a landlord.