We receive a number of queries from Registered Social Landlords on tenant abandonment, asking - what is an abandoned property? - and about the procedures involved for recovering possession of abandoned properties?

Section 17 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 states that a social landlord may commence proceedings to recover possession of a property if they have reasonable grounds for believing that -

• The house is unoccupied, and
• The tenant does not intend to occupy it as the tenant's home.

A landlord should make necessary

We are regularly asked for advice by landlords in Scotland on how to repossess a property that a tenant has abandoned. However, recently we were presented with a situation that was slightly more problematic where the tenant had abandoned the property and then sublet without consent!

There is no legal route to repossess a property where a tenant has abandoned, other than by seeking a court order. However, landlords generally wish to repossess sooner rather than later and may want to carry out an assessment