Ending Tenancies and Minimising Void Periods

If your tenant has an assured tenancy, you cannot ask them to leave the property without giving a reason. Only tenants that moved in before 1 December 2017 may still be on aN assured tenancy.

You have to give your tenant:

• a 'notice to quit'
• a 'notice of proceedings', which is written notice that you plan to start legal proceedings to get the property back

If your tenant does not agree to move out of the house by the date on the notice to quit, you have up to six months to contact the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) ('the Tribunal' for short) and start the eviction process.

The tenant will then be sent a letter from the Tribunal telling them when the case will be heard so they can give their side of the story.

There are 17 different possible grounds for eviction. You have to prove at least one of these for the Tribunal to decide whether your tenant should be evicted.

Notice to quit
The notice to quit is written notice that you want to end the tenancy and want your tenant to move out of the property.

Again, a notice to quit is only valid if it:

• is in writing
• tells the tenant how long their notice is
• ties in with the 'ish date' (the date the tenancy agreement ends)
• makes it clear that even when the notice runs out you still have to get an eviction order from the Tribunal before the tenant has to leave
• tells the tenant that they can get independent advice, and tells them where they can get it

Since December 2017, eviction cases are now dealt with by the Tribunal rather than the Sheriff Court. Any notice to quit you serve, must make it clear that the case will be dealt with by the Tribunal and must comply with the current regulations.

Notice of proceedings

A notice of proceedings is written notice that you're going to start legal proceedings to get your property back.

It should come on a special form called an AT6, and it should tell the tenant:

• the reasons (or grounds) why you want the property back
• how these reasons apply to the tenant
• how much notice you have to give before you can contact the Tribunal and have them evicted

Download the AT6 form from statutory forms for assured tenancies and short assured 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
• whether you are serving notice on your tenant on or after 7 April 2020 or on or after 3 October 2020

The Scottish Government has passed an emergency law to protect renters in Scotland during coronavirus.

This law temporarily extends the amount of notice landlords must give when ending a tenancy. In most cases landlords will now need to give tenants 6 months' notice, unless they are ending the tenancy for certain reasons. This includes antisocial and criminal behaviour and where the landlord or their family need to move into the property.

The new law applies if you are serving notice on your tenant on or after 7 April 2020. After 3 October 2020 further changes were made reducing the notice period for antisocial or criminal behaviour related grounds. If you served notice on your tenant before 7 April 2020 then both sets of changes do not apply.

Sending Tenants 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.

When evicting a subtenant, there is a different notice that you must use for this, called a Subtenant Notice to Leave. You can create a Subtenant Notice to Leave.

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.