About The Legislation

Did You Know...

As part of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 the Scottish Government has introduced tenancy deposit protection for all relevant tenancies in Scotland where a deposit is taken. All deposits paid under a relevant tenancy should be protected within 30 days of the start of a tenancy (subject to Scottish Government guidelines, see our Implementation and Compliance Flowchart ).

The Letting Protection Service Scotland

What is it?

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 legislation aims to ensure that tenants who have paid a deposit to a landlord or letting agent and are entitled to receive all or part of it back at the end of that tenancy, actually get it.

Who is affected?

Full details can be obtained by referring to Section 3 of The Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011.

Why is legislation needed?

Concerns over poor tenancy deposit practice led to Scottish Ministers being granted powers in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 to bring forward regulations for the approval of mandatory national schemes to safeguard tenancy deposits.

Evidence from the Review of the Private Rented Sector, published in March 2009, indicated that the amount of wrongly withheld deposits in Scotland may be between £2.2 and £3.6 million, affecting between 8,000 and 11,000 tenants.

The main objectives in bringing forward regulations for the approval of tenancy deposit schemes are:
  • to deal with the problem of unfairly withheld deposits
  • ensure that deposits are safeguarded for the duration of the tenancy
  • ensure that deposits are returned quickly and fairly, particularly where a disagreement over the return of the deposit arises

Nearly one in five (17%) of tenants who had some or all of their deposit withheld felt that it had been withheld unjustifiably*. The new tenancy deposit protection scheme in Scotland will ensure all landlords safeguard the deposits they take, which is in every landlord and tenant's interests.

Please see our FAQs for more information.

  • *Source: The Deposit Protection Service
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