14 October 2020
Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Protection from Eviction) (Scotland) Regulations 2020/425 (Scottish SI) (“the Regulations”)
Since March 2020, several protections have been introduced for tenants in respect of domestic evictions. On 10 December 2020 Parliament approved further Regulations which place further restrictions on evictions and are said to be in response to the serious and imminent threat to public health due to COVID-19. The Regulations came into force on 11 December 2020 and will expire on 22 January 2021.
Regulation 2 reads as follows:
2.— Residential Tenancies (Protection from Eviction)
(1) No person may attend at a dwelling house for the purpose of—
(a) serving a charge for removing, or
(b) executing a decree for removing from heritable property.
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Whilst the Regulations prohibit evictions from taking place in the majority of cases, they will not apply to cases where decree has been granted for criminal or antisocial behaviour (grounds 2, 7 and 8).
Currently, Landlords have up to 6 months to carry out an eviction once decree is granted (The Scottish Secure Tenancies (Repossession Orders) (Maximum Period) Order 2012). The period accumulated whilst the Regulations are in force will not count towards the 6 months maximum period (i.e. from 11 December 2020 to 22 January 2021).
Should you have any questions in relation to this matter, please do not hesitate to contact:
Grant Hunter, Partner: ghu@bto.co.uk T. 0141 221 8012