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SECTION 1 - PURPOSE OF CONSULTATION

What is this consultation about?

This consultation seeks views on proposed amendments to Regulations made under section 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 ('The Act'). Under the Act, since 30 April 2006, all owners of privately rented housing in Scotland have been required to apply for registration with their local authority. The aims of landlord registration are to raise standards of accommodation and management and assure private tenants that their landlord is a fit and proper person to let property.

In 2007, Arneil Johnston was commissioned to undertake a Good Practice Review of the implementation of landlord registration. The resulting Private Landlord Registration Good Practice Report ¹ included a number of recommendations in relation to improving delivery, including some recommendations on the existing legislative framework. As a result of this work, Arneil Johnston was further commissioned to undertake a review of the legislation underpinning the landlord registration scheme. As part of this review, two focus groups have been held with representatives from local authorities, landlord and agent organisations and tenant groups. The focus groups concentrated primarily on recommendations made by Arneil Johnston in relation to secondary legislation but also considered aspects of primary legislation.

This consultation paper proposes a number of amendments to the secondary legislation underpinning landlord registration, drawing on the conclusions of the Good Practice Review and the legislative focus groups. The amendments are intended to: streamline delivery of the scheme; prepare for the start of the application renewal process in March 2009; and make delivery of the scheme more effective and efficient.

Who should respond

Those with responsibility for landlord registration and housing matters within each local authority; landlords, agents and tenants affected by landlord registration and the proposed amendments; and organisations with an interest in the private rented housing sector should respond to this consultation.

Participating in this consultation

We are inviting written responses to this consultation by 10 ^th October 2008. You should use the form provided at Section 4 to submit your response to the consultation questions. Please send your response to:

Housing2admin@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
or
Jane Macpherson

We would be grateful if you would use the form provided at Section 4 to submit your response or clearly indicate in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to as this will aid our analysis of the responses received. If you are replying electronically it would be helpful if the email header could read 'Landlord Registration Regulations - consultation response' and also include your name or that of your organisation if you are replying on behalf of an organisation.

This consultation paper has been distributed to a wide range of stakeholders; a list of those invited to respond is available on request.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Government consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations. You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is.

The Scottish Government now has an email alert system for consultation (SEconsult: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Consultations/seConsult). This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). SEconsult complements, but in no way replaces, Scottish Government distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all Scottish Government consultation activity, and therefore to be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your responses to be made public. Please complete and return the Respondent Information Form as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential and treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Government library by 10 ^th November 2008 and on the Scottish Government web pages by 17 ^th November 2008. We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for any potentially defamatory material before logging them in the library and placing them on the website. You can made arrangements to view responses by contacting the Scottish Government library on 0131 244 4552. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

What happens next?

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us reach a decision on amending the Regulations. We aim to issue a report on this consultation process and lay amended Regulations in 2008.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to:

Jane Macpherson

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