Rent increase statistics

Rent Service Scotland (RSS) is the body which oversees rent setting in Scotland. It has historically been responsible for setting rents on old regulated tenancies (these are tenancies which commenced before January 1989, a few of which are still in existence). More recently it has taken on the task of dealing with applications from tenants who wish to challenge the rent increase proposed by their landlord on PRTs and statutory assured/short assured tenancies.

RSS has recently supplied SAL with statistics on the applications they’ve received since a new procedure for challenging rent increases was introduced on 1 April 2024:

• 938 tenants have applied to RSS since 1 April. Prior to the rent controls introduced in the Cost of Living Act they received around 20-30 applications per year
• A large proportion of applications (210) were rejected because they were invalid (not made within 21 days of the tenant receiving the rent increase notice, incomplete information supplied or the landlord’s rent increase notice was invalid)
• 614 decisions have been made
• 86 applications have been withdrawn (usually because the parties agreed on a figure)
• Approximately 200 property visits have been done by rent officers to assist with their assessment of the open market rental value
• The average turnaround time from point of application to the point of the decision being issued is 4-6 weeks
• About 50% of applications have resulted in RSS setting the rent at the figure the landlord originally proposed

For guidance on increasing rents and an explanation of the tapering mechanism RSS must apply if the tenant challenges a rent increase, see our factsheet here.

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