Changes to tribunal rules
Amendments to the legislation governing the operation of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing & Property Chamber) (FTT) have recently come into force. The key ones that landlords and letting agents should be aware of are:
- A party may request to amend their application, e.g. to amend the sum claimed in a payment action, by intimating the amendment to any other party and the FTT in writing at least 14 days prior to a case management discussion or hearing.
- Where the address of a party is not known e.g. where the landlord is pursuing a former tenant for rent arrears and doesn’t know their new address, the applicant can request that the tribunal advertise notice of proceedings to the respondent on the FTT’s website. To do this the applicant must complete an application for service by advertisement which can be found here. The applicant will need to give details and evidence of the steps taken to ascertain the address of the respondent. We recommend engaging a firm of sheriff officers to conduct a trace on the respondent and including their report with the application.
SAL’s answers to frequently asked questions about FTT eviction and debt recovery applications can be found here, (members please remember to log in to access our documents).
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