Housing (Scotland) Act 2025

Housing (Scotland) Act 2025

2025 asp 13

Crown Application

Part 2 – Dealing With Evictions

Evictions: duties to consider delay

Section 29 - Scottish secure tenancies etc.: duty to consider delay to eviction

98. A sheriff court, when making an order under section 16(2) or 36(5) of the 2001 Act for the recovery of possession of a house that is let to a tenant under a Scottish secure tenancy or a short Scottish secure tenancy, must specify the date when the right to recover possession takes effect. (See also section 34(6) and 36(7) of the 2001 Act as regards the application of section 16(2) of that Act to “short Scottish secure tenancies”, and the meaning given in section 111 of that Act.)

99. Section 29 of the 2025 Act inserts new sections 16A and 36A into the 2001 Act. These new sections provide that the court must, when specifying in an order for recovery of possession the date when the right to recover possession takes effect, consider if it would be reasonable to delay the right to recover possession. In doing so, the court may consider if the absence of a delay would cause the tenant or the tenant’s household financial hardship or have certain other detrimental effects. The examples given in paragraph 96 of these Notes are relevant here too. The duty to consider a delay under each section does not apply if the right to recover possession is based only on one or more of the grounds mentioned in subsection (5) of the section.