Scope: Scotland. Cited to Scottish instruments throughout. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 is asp 13. Its commencement is governed by regulations made under section 86, principally the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 3) Regulations 2026 (SSI 2026/115). An Act being passed is not an Act being in force, and this article follows the commencement regulations rather than the Act’s contents page.
Our compliance check now covers Scotland, and so does the fine calculator. Enter a Scottish postcode and both answer in Scots law, cited to Scottish instruments — the check with your council’s registration and HMO position where we hold it, the calculator with the Scottish maximum for each offence and, where the consequence is not a fine, what it actually is. Still England and Wales only: the tenancy agreement checker, whose findings come from England and Wales statutes.
Four dates, not one
SSI 2026/115 appoints four commencement dates, each with its own schedule of provisions, and several of those provisions come into force only for a specified purpose:
| Date | Broadly, what commences |
|---|
| 1 April 2026 | The rent control assessment machinery, pets and property changes, letting agent registration amendments, homelessness duties, property factors, fuel poverty, student tenancy regulation-making powers |
| 1 August 2026 | Scottish secure tenancy succession; delivery of notices by social landlords |
| 6 October 2026 | Payments for wrongful termination; private residential tenancy succession |
| 1 April 2027 | Capping of rent increases for private residential and assured tenancies; ending a joint tenancy, for all remaining purposes |
A private landlord reading only the headlines would assume the Act arrived in April 2026 and is now fully operative. The two provisions that most change a landlord’s financial exposure had not commenced then, and one of them has still not commenced now.
What binds a private landlord today
Pets and changes to the let property — section 35
In force from 1 April 2026, for the purpose of inserting the relevant sections into the 2016 Act. It creates a structured route for a tenant to request to keep a pet and to make changes to the property, with the landlord’s response regulated rather than discretionary. If your standard terms carry a flat prohibition on pets, they are no longer the whole answer.
Rent information in advertisements — section 22
In force for advertisements placed on or after the appointed day. Prospective landlords have a duty to include information about rent in advertisements. This is a small provision with a wide surface: it applies at the point of marketing, which is before any tenancy exists.
Setting and variation of rent — section 23
In force for all remaining purposes from 1 April 2026.
Letting agent registration — sections 38 to 43
A group of amendments to Part 4 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014: applications for registration, the duty to inform on a change of circumstances, revocation where an agent no longer exists, removal on application, the duration of a note on the register where an entry is refused or removed, and powers to obtain information and carry out inspections. If you use an agent, see letting agent registration.
Ending a joint tenancy — section 44(1) and (3)
In force from 1 April 2026 only to enable regulations to be made. The substantive change waits for those regulations and for the remaining purposes on 1 April 2027. See joint and multiple landlords.
Student residential tenancies — section 45
A power to enable a tenant to bring a tenancy to an end, in force from 1 April 2026. Again a regulation-making power rather than an immediate duty, and it runs in the tenant’s direction. See student lets.
The two that reprice getting it wrong
6 October 2026 — wrongful termination, section 34
This is the largest single change to a private landlord’s exposure in the Act, and it commences in weeks rather than years.
Section 34 rewrites section 59 of the 2016 Act. The current cap of “not exceeding six months’ rent” is replaced by an amount the Tribunal determines that is not less than 3 and not more than 36 times the relevant sum, taking into account the manner of the wrongful termination and its impact on the applicant — with a power to go below the floor where the circumstances warrant it. The relevant sum is one month’s rent, or £840 if that is higher, and Ministers may change the £840 by regulations.
It applies to a tenancy brought to an end by an eviction order on or after that date. A £900-a-month tenancy moves from £5,400 of exposure to as much as £32,400. See wrongful termination orders.
1 April 2027 — capping of rent increases, sections 25 and 26
Section 25 amends the rent officer’s power in section 25 of the 2016 Act and the Tribunal’s power in section 29, so that the rent set on a referral or appeal becomes the lower of the rent determined in the ordinary way and the rent specified in the landlord’s own rent-increase notice. Section 26 does the equivalent for assured tenancies.
This removes something landlords currently rely on. Today, a referral can go either way — there is no rule that the determined rent cannot exceed what the landlord asked for, which is what makes a tenant’s referral risky for the tenant. From 1 April 2027 the landlord’s own proposed figure becomes a ceiling, so the risk in referring becomes one-sided.
What this Act does not yet do
Rent control areas. The assessment machinery in sections 1 to 15 and the power to designate in section 9 are in force, but no rent control area has been designated and the first local authority reports are not due until 31 May 2027. The framework existing is not the same as a cap applying. That is covered in full in rent control areas under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, and this article deliberately does not restate it.
How to read commencement claims
Three habits, learned from this Act:
- Check the commencement regulations, not the Act. An Act’s contents page tells you what Parliament passed, not what binds you.
- Watch for “for specified purposes”. Several sections here are in force only to enable regulations. That is not the duty arriving.
- Watch the trigger, not just the date. Section 34 applies to tenancies ended by an order on or after 6 October 2026; section 48 to deaths on or after that date; section 22 to advertisements placed on or after the appointed day. The date attaches to an event, not to your diary.
Information tool, not legal advice. Scottish law only.