It’s a legal requirement for landlords in Scotland to register with the Scottish Landlord Register.
Registration runs for 3 years then landlords need to renew, otherwise properties in Scotland can’t be advertised for let. From 16th September 2019 the Scottish Government altered the application process for Landlord registration to help landlords make sure they meet their rental property obligations.
What’s changed?
Previously, landlords only had to provide basic personal-, property- and agent-related information to join the Landlord Register, updating their registration if they moved house, changed contact details or if the property was sold or they moved managing agents. Nice and easy. Changes have been made to increase the focus on housing standards and quality of management. Landlords now need to declare they are complying with various duties including meeting The Repairing Standard and The Tolerable Standard. Landlords also need to confirm tenants have received a copy of The Energy Performance Certificate, the Gas Safe record and the Electrical Inspection Condition Report. They must also confirm that buildings insurance is in place, that Legionella Risk Assessments are in place and that the deposit has been lodged with an approved Tenancy Deposit Scheme. More information can be read here.
What do landlords need to do?
For existing registrations there’s nothing landlords need to do until it’s time for renewal (landlords should get a reminder from The Landlord Register shortly before expiry). Once it’s time for renewal landlords should go to The Landlord Register and follow the steps to renew. Although each landlord only gets one Landlord Registration Number, each property a landlord owns must be registered. If a property is owned jointly with another person, that person must also register/renew. The price for registration/renewal has increased slightly.
What Umega will do :
We love to help landlords wherever we can however, Landlord registration or renewal must be carried out directly by the landlord. Once a landlord has registered we ask that they provide us with their landlord registration number, the expiry date, and the names of any other landlords registered against their property/properties. We’re then able to cross-check the information we currently with the updated registration names/numbers, making sure everything’s accurate (Landlord registration numbers are provided in property leases so we need to make sure everything is accurate).