Your Tenancy Rights

A PRT is a standardised set of laws and regulations which apply to all private tenants and landlords in Scotland. No other private tenancy can be issued and any written tenancy agreement which contradicts a PRT is invalid.

This is useful for tenants because, once you get to know your rights in a PRT, you can move into any accommodation with a private landlord anywhere in Scotland and your rights will be the same.

The laws in a PRT include:

• The legal obligation for private landlords in Scotland to be registered. It is a criminal offence for a landlord not to be registered and can carry a fine of up to £50,000.
• The legal obligation for private landlords to put their tenants' deposit in a third-party Government deposit scheme within 30 days of the tenancy starting.
• The legal right for tenants to provide 28 days' notice to leave the accommodation at any time.
• The legal right for tenants to not be asked for any more than 6 months of rent in advance.

Ensuring your landlord is registered makes it possible to take action against them if they breach any of their legal responsibilities, and so you should always make this your first step. You can do this by searching the full address of any accommodation you are looking to rent here.

We advise that you search the address of the property and not their landlord registration number, as landlord registration numbers do not tell you which properties they own and many scams occur due to fraudsters using another landlord's registration number.

Please take time to find out everything you need to know about having a PRT here.

Common law tenancy agreements are unlike PRTs. Whilst a PRT is standardised and applies to anyone who rents from a landlord who does not live in the property, every common law tenancy agreement is different.

You will likely have a common law tenancy agreement if you live in campus accommodation, private student accommodation, or if you live in the same property as your landlord, for example, because you are renting their spare room.

Common law tenancies are similar to mobile phone contracts: once you sign up to the terms and conditions, you are bound by them.

For example, if you are living with your landlord, they do not need to be registered and they do not need to put your deposit in a third-party Government deposit scheme or, if you live in student accommodation, you cannot provide 28 days' notice to leave at any time.

However, this does not mean you don't have any rights at all, and if you ever want an Adviser to check over any documentation for you, we are always happy to help.