Housing Minister’s letter to landlords and letting agents

The Covid-19 crisis is causing anxiety for most of us and putting pressure on landlords, letting agents and our tenants. I am in constant dialogue with the Scottish Government on behalf of SAL members, ensuring that our concerns are heard and working together to do our best in the most challenging and rapidly changing situation most of us have ever experienced.

The Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Aileen Campbell MSP today made a statement in the Scottish Parliament and we were pleased to hear within this, the recognition that support must be given to private sector landlords at this time, in the words “Let me be clear we do not want private sector landlords to be disadvantaged by a lack of rent.”
See full speech.

Scotland’s Housing Minister Kevin Stewart MSP, has just now published an open letter to landlords and letting agents. SAL is pleased to see within this letter the government adding their voice to SAL calls for buy-to-let mortgage providers to provide payment holidays to landlords with mortgages on their rental properties. This is needed for landlords to do even more to help support tenants, as society as a whole collectively pays the price of the impending economic crisis.

Here is the letter from the Housing Minister, Kevin Stewart MSP to landlords and letting agents:

Ministerial letter: landlord and agent communicationPDF, 57.07 KB

Scottish Ministers’ announcement of a temporary legislative change to amend the mandatory grounds for eviction for rent arrears under the Private Residential Tenancy, from three months to six months is now academic as this evening, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, it has been announced that the Housing and Property Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal that deals with eviction cases, will not be hearing cases until at least 28 May but this could be much longer.

Members, please remember that SAL is here to help and support you. Our whole team is set up with full remote working and our service is operating as normal at present.

Please see our guidance on helping tenants pay rent, our COVID-19 information and contact us if we can help with individual advice.

Kind regards

John Blackwood
Chief Executive