The Housing Scotland Act 2014 has now completed its passage through the Scottish Parliament. Royal Assent was granted on 1 August 2014.

This Act will introduce significant changes to the rules which govern tenancies in the public sector in Scotland. Two parts have direct effect on social housing.

Part 1 of the Act will lead to the complete abolition of the Right to Buy. We expect abolition to be effective on 1 August 2016.

Part 2 of the Act will include the following amendments to law and practice.

• New definitions of the groups who must be given "reasonable preference" and priority in allocation of housing.
• Introduction of a new rule which will allow social landlords to take into account whether an applicant owns other property prior to allocating a house.
• Introduction of a qualifying period before certain housing applications become 'live'.
• Social landlords will be given flexibility to grant Short SSTs (or convert existing full SSTs) where applicants have acted antisocially in or near their home within the last 3 years.
• Social landlords will be given flexibility to grant Short SSTs to home owners whose homes require significant repair works and who require accommodation during those works.
• A new minimum term of 12 months will apply to short SSTs which are granted based on previous antisocial behaviour. This term can be extended by a further 6 months.
• In short SSTs which have been granted because of previous antisocial behaviour, new rules relating to eviction will be introduced confirming that a reason for the eviction must be given and a review of the landlord's decision to seek eviction must be undertaken if requested
• Changes to rules on assignation and subletting will mean that a tenant cannot request to assign or sublet until they have been a tenant for 12 months.
• New reasons for refusals of assignations and sublets are created including "under-occupation" or lack of housing need.
• A 12 month period of prior occupancy will be reintroduced for those claiming succession to a tenancy who are not joint tenants, or were married or civil partners to the deceased. New rules will also mean that this period of occupation has to be within the knowledge of the landlord.
• Eviction rules will also be changed. The Act removes the 'reasonableness' test where eviction is based on ground 2. Namely where the tenant or a person living in the tenant's household has been convicted of using the house for illegal purposes or has committed an offence punishable by imprisonment within the previous 12 months. We expect that defences will still be raised under the provisions of human rights law.

The Housing Scotland Act 2014 contains many other changes to housing law in other areas. No dates have yet been set for the implementation of these proposals but as always we will ensure that our clients are kept fully informed! ?If you any queries please don?t hesitate to contact our housing team.