Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024

9 Power to evacuate

(1) The Scottish Ministers may require the occupants of premises to remove from them in any of the following circumstances—

(a) in the Scottish Ministers’ opinion—

(i) there is a substantial risk to the occupants’ lives, or

(ii) continued occupation of the premises would mean that there would be a substantial risk to the lives of the occupants of any other premises,

due (directly or indirectly) to the external wall cladding system of a building that is undergoing, or has undergone, a single-building assessment or an additional work assessment,

(b) the Scottish Ministers have arranged for work to be carried out under section 7 or 8 and, in their opinion, the occupants of the premises may be endangered by the carrying out of the work.

(2) A requirement to remove from premises in the circumstance mentioned in subsection (1)(a)—

(a) may be imposed by informing the occupants verbally, or by giving them written notice, that they are to remove from the premises,

(b) may require the occupants to remove from the premises immediately.

(3) A requirement to remove from premises in the circumstance mentioned in subsection (1)(b)—

(a) may be imposed only by giving the occupants a written notice that they are to remove from the premises by a date specified in the notice,

(b) may not require the occupants to remove before the end of the 14 day period beginning with the day that the notice required by paragraph (a) is given.

(4) Having imposed a requirement to remove from premises under this section, and having since become satisfied that no-one would be endangered by occupying the premises, the Scottish Ministers must—

(a) cause notice to that effect to be conspicuously displayed on or near the premises for a period of at least 14 days, and

(b) take all reasonable steps to give notice to that effect to any person who—

(i) removed from the premises in accordance with a requirement imposed under this section, or

(ii) was ejected from them by virtue of a warrant granted under paragraph 3 of the schedule.

(5) A person’s tenancy of premises is not to be taken to have been terminated, varied or altered by reason of the person’s—

(a) removing from the premises in accordance with a requirement imposed under this section, or

(b) being ejected from the premises by virtue of a warrant granted under paragraph 3 of the schedule.

(6) The schedule makes provision about the granting of warrants for the ejection of occupants required to remove under this section.