The Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL) took Scottish ministers to court on November 2 to petition a review of The Cost of Living (Tenant Protections) (Scotland) Act 2022, on the grounds that it interfered with their members’ Human Rights.
The opinion of Lord Harrower detailed how the SAL challenged the “competence of the Act on the basis that its provisions involve a disproportionate interference with their members’ rights under Article 1, Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)”.
Article 1 states that “Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions.”
Lord Harrower, however, refused to grant the “orders craved in the petition” denying the SAL’s petition.
The debacle over Short-Term-Lets (STLs) and the Scottish Government’s implementation of rent controls has long been under scrutiny after Lord Braid found the Scottish Government was unlawful in its implementation of STL licences in June.
The judgement from Lord Harrower comes in the same week that the City of Edinburgh Council formally declared a housing emergency, citing homelessness levels reaching “5,000 households a night.”
However, in a rental market update from property letting agency Umega, data from Rightmove suggests that there are more than 100 additional properties up for rent relative to this time last year.
The update also pointed out how “Edinburgh Council’s restrictions on short-term lets came into force at the start of October meaning hundreds of ex-holiday lets are switching over to the long-term rental market creating some much needed additional stock for tenants”.
However, the Chief Executive of the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) Ben Beadle commented on the decision form Lord Harrower that:
“Ministers now need to recognise the significant damage such policies are having on the provision of homes to rent.”
Likewise, the Vice Principal of the University of Edinburgh, Colm Harmon wrote in The Scotsman that “it seems at least possible that more properties will be sold and taken out of the rental market”.
Edinburgh charity Slurp revealed in February how students are especially vulnerable, with as many as one in five students without a name to a lease at the beginning of their studies.
Image via Rayna Carruthers