Scope: Scotland. Cited to Scottish instruments throughout. Wrongful-termination orders are a remedy under the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016. They are not the English rent repayment order, which is a Housing Act 2004 remedy tied to licensing offences and works on an entirely different trigger.
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.
What the order is
A wrongful-termination order requires the person who was the landlord to pay the former tenant an amount not exceeding six months’ rent. That is section 59(1) of the 2016 Act.
It is a Tribunal order, not a fine. Nothing is payable to the council or to the Crown; the money goes to the person who lost their home. And it is not a penalty for bad paperwork — it is a remedy for a tenancy that ended on a false basis.
The two routes in
Section 58 — the tenant left without any order
The Tribunal may make a wrongful-termination order if it finds that the former tenant was misled into ceasing to occupy the let property by the person who was the landlord.
No eviction order needs to have existed. This is the section that catches the landlord who told a tenant the property was being sold, or that the landlord’s family was moving in, or that the licence had been revoked and they had to go — and none of it was true. The tenant left, so no Tribunal ever tested the ground, and section 58 is how it gets tested afterwards.
Section 57 — the order was obtained by misleading the Tribunal
Where an eviction order was granted, and the Tribunal was misled into issuing it, the former tenant may apply for a wrongful-termination order. The application is made after the fact, and it is the same remedy.
The practical exposure here is the intention grounds — the landlord who says they intend to sell, or to move in, or to refurbish, gets the order, and then does none of those things. An intention that evaporates immediately after possession is the fact pattern section 57 exists for.
How much six months’ rent actually is
Section 59(4) defines it, and the definition matters more than the cap:
- “Rent” means the amount payable in rent under the tenancy immediately before it ended. Not the market rent, not what you now charge, and not what you could have charged.
- Where there were joint tenants, it is that amount divided by the number of joint tenants.
So a three-tenant joint tenancy at £1,500 a month does not expose a landlord to £9,000 on one application. Each applicant’s ceiling is six months of £500 — £3,000 — and the applicant is the person who applied, not the household. Three separate applications could still reach £9,000 between them, but they are three applications, each decided on its own facts.
Joint landlords
Section 59(2) and (3) deal with the other side. Where two or more people were jointly the landlord, the Tribunal may make the order:
- against all, some, or only one of the former joint landlords;
- stating a specified amount for each, provided the cumulative total does not exceed six months’ rent; or
- stating that each is jointly and severally liable for the whole amount.
The third option is the one to notice. Joint and several liability means the tenant can recover the entire sum from whichever landlord is easiest to enforce against, and it is then that landlord’s problem to recover a share from the others. If you let jointly with someone whose conduct you do not control, you are exposed to it. See joint and multiple landlords.
What this means in practice
The cheapest protection is documentary and it is created before you serve anything, not after:
- Evidence the intention when you assert it. A marketing agreement, a mortgage offer, an architect’s drawing — dated at the time. An intention proved only by your own later account is what section 57 applications are built on.
- Do not improvise a reason. Telling a tenant something that sounds sufficient, in order to get a conversation to end, is precisely the conduct section 58 describes.
- Use the Notice to Leave and the Tribunal. A tenant who leaves after a properly served notice on a genuine ground is not a section 58 applicant.
- If the intention changes, record why. A sale that falls through is not a lie. A sale that was never attempted is harder to explain.
This ceiling changes on 6 October 2026
Everything above is the law today. It is not the law from 6 October 2026, and the change is large enough that planning around six months’ rent is planning around a number with a short life.
Section 34 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 rewrites section 59. From that date, for a tenancy brought to an end by an eviction order on or after it, the Tribunal determines an amount that is:
- not less than 3 times the relevant sum, and
- not more than 36 times the relevant sum,
taking into account the manner of the wrongful termination and the impact it has had on the person who applied. The Tribunal may go below the floor of three times, including lower, if it considers that appropriate having regard to all the circumstances — so the floor is a starting point rather than a minimum.
The “relevant sum” is defined as one month’s rent under the tenancy, or £840 if that is higher. Scottish Ministers may change the £840 by regulations.
Read that against the current cap. A tenancy at £900 a month is exposed to £5,400 today and up to £32,400 from 6 October. A tenancy at £600 a month is exposed to £3,600 today and, because the relevant sum floors at £840, up to £30,240 — more than four years of the actual rent. The joint-landlord cumulative cap in section 59(3)(b) moves to 36 times the relevant sum with it.
Where it sits among the other consequences
A wrongful-termination order is separate from, and can run alongside, the sanctions for letting unregistered and for an unlicensed HMO. It is decided by the same First-tier Tribunal that hears eviction applications, which means the body assessing whether you misled it is the body you appeared in front of.
Information tool, not legal advice. Scottish law only.