Scope: Scotland. Cited to Scottish instruments throughout. Rent on a Private Residential Tenancy is governed by Part 4 of the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016. Section 13 of the English Housing Act 1988 has no application here.
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.
The rule, in three parts
- Once in any twelve months. Rent under a PRT may not be increased more than once in a twelve-month period. This is a statutory limit and no agreement can shorten it.
- By a rent-increase notice in the form prescribed by regulations. A letter, an email or a clause in the tenancy agreement providing for automatic uplifts does not do it.
- Three months’ notice. The notice must give at least three months before the increase takes effect.
Get any of the three wrong and the increase does not take effect. It is not reduced or postponed — the rent simply does not change.
Escalator clauses do not work
A clause saying rent rises by a fixed percentage each year, or tracks an index automatically, is ineffective against the statutory procedure. The procedure in section 22 is how rent goes up under a PRT, and the statutory terms apply to every PRT whether or not the written agreement mentions them. See the PRT explained.
How a tenant challenges it
A tenant who thinks the proposed rent is above the open market rate may refer the notice for adjudication before the increase takes effect. The referral must be made within the period stated in the notice — a tenant who lets that period pass is bound by the increase.
The adjudication can go either way. The rent determined is the open market rent for the property, and there is no rule that it cannot exceed what the landlord asked for. A tenant referring a modest increase can end up with a larger one, and a landlord who has asked for well above market can expect it to be brought down.
That is the real discipline in the system: both parties carry risk in a referral, so both have a reason to be realistic.
What the emergency measures did, and why they are not this
The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 introduced a temporary rent cap and temporary changes to how increases were adjudicated. Those measures were time-limited and have expired, along with the transitional adjudication rules that followed them.
They are described here in the past tense deliberately. A great deal of published commentary still describes the emergency cap as though it were live, and a landlord who plans around it is planning around law that has lapsed. The position today is the ordinary section 22 procedure set out above.
And what about rent controls?
Separate thing, separate Act, and not yet biting. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 creates a framework under which Scottish Ministers may designate rent control areas following assessment by local authorities. The framework commenced on 1 April 2026; the first local authority reports are due by 31 May 2027; and no rent control area has been designated.
So no Scottish landlord is currently subject to a rent cap under that Act. The full position, including what a cap would look like if an area were designated, is in rent control areas under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025.
Practical sequence
- Check the last increase was more than twelve months ago.
- Establish what the open market rent actually is, with comparables you could show an adjudicator.
- Serve the prescribed rent-increase notice, giving at least three months.
- Keep proof of service and of the date.
Information tool, not legal advice. Scottish law only.