Measures contained in new laws aimed at reforming Scotland’s private rental market are the “equivalent of giving tenants a zero hours contract on their homes”, MSPs have been warned.
Govan Law Centre raised concerns over the grounds for eviction of tenants set out in the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Bill during an evidence session on the legislation at Holyrood’s Infrastructure Committee.
The Bill removes the current “no-fault” ground of termination, which allows landlords to reclaim their property simply because the fixed-term of a lease has ended.
Instead, it sets out 16 grounds under which a landlord could require a tenant to move out, such as the intention to sell or reoccupy the property.
But the committee heard these go so far they effectively “remove any security of tenure for tenants”.
Mike Dailly, solicitor advocate and principal solicitor at Govan Law Centre, said he supported the removal of the no-fault ground.
“The problem is we have created so many mandatory grounds that effectively supersedes the good intention that the Government had in the first place,” he added.
“In some respects you could say that these grounds are so powerful and so mandatory that it is the equivalent of giving a tenant a zero hours contract on their home.”
Mr Dailly said 12 of the 16 grounds were “technically mandatory” while four have some element of a “reasonableness” test.
But, he added, the reasonableness required is “incredibly focused and incredibly narrow”.
“There is very little room for manoeuvre,” he added.
“All a landlord needs to say is that ‘I intend to sell my house in the future’, and they will be able to evict, and that will be that.
“When landlords want to get rid of a tenant they would just use the no-fault ground at the moment.
“I am suggesting to you that in the future, unless we correct this, a landlord simply has to say I would like my brother or my grandchild to move in – how can anyone dispute that as a matter of practice?
“How can we possibly defend that, because it is an intention in the next three months?
“I think it would be helpful if some of these grounds were removed. We can modify some of them with a reasonableness test.”
He said landlords must be able to get their property back if their tenant was failing to pay their rent, or being anti-social, or if they need to sell their property, but the legislation in its current form leans too far in favour of landlords.
“I think just giving the landlord the ability to sell it (their property) at the drop of a hat undermines the whole good intentions of the Scottish Government,” he added.
In addition, proposals for tenants to apply to a first-tier tribunal to challenge their eviction are not workable in real life as they would require tenants to become “private detectives” to prove a landlord had been lying about their intentions, Mr Dailly said.
“In that circumstance it would then be incumbent on that person, the tenant, to gather the evidence like a private detective to try to prove that a tribunal had been duped,” he added.