Private residential tenancy: model agreement

Section 2: glossary of terms & interpretation

In this Agreement, the following words have these meanings except where the content indicates otherwise:

• Assignation: Where a Tenant transfers his or her rights in a private residential tenancy (or share in a joint tenancy) to another person, subject to obtaining the Landlord's prior written permission.
• Common Parts: in relation to premises, the structure and exterior of, and any common facilities within or used in connection with, the building or part of a building which includes the premises but only in so far as the structure, exterior and common facilities are not solely owned by the owner of the premises.
• Data Protection Laws: any law, statute, subordinate legislation, regulation, order, mandatory guidance or code of practice, judgment of a relevant court of law, or directives or requirements of any regulatory body which relates to the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of Personal Data to which a Party is subject including the Data Protection Act 2018 and any statutory modification or re-enactment thereof and the GDPR.
• Eviction ground: one or more of the grounds named in schedule 3 of the Act on the basis of which an eviction order may be issued by the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber ("the Tribunal").
• Eviction order: an order issued by the Tribunal which brings a private residential tenancy to an end on a certain date.
• Exempt property: a property located within a Rent Control Area which is exempt from the rent cap as a result of regulations made by the Scottish Ministers. Currently, some build-to-rent properties and mid-market rent properties that meet certain criteria are exempt.
• Fixed carbon-fuelled appliance: an appliance that is attached to the building fabric or connected to a mains fuel supply and burns fuel to produce energy.
• UK GDPR: the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (as amended by the Data Protection, Privacy And Electronic Communications (Amendments Etc)(Eu Exit) Regulations 2020).
• Guarantor: a third party, such as a parent or close relative, who agrees to pay rent if the Tenant doesn't pay it and meet any other obligation that the Tenant fails to meet. The Landlord can take legal action to recover from a guarantor all payments of rent, any other obligations under this Agreement, and any other payments due to the Landlord which the Tenant is required to pay under this Agreement.
• House in Multiple Occupation (HMO): Living accommodation is an HMO if it is occupied by three or more adults (aged 16 or over) from three or more families as their only or main residence and comprises either a house, premises or a group of premises owned by the same person with shared basic amenities (a toilet, personal washing facilities, and facilities for the preparation or provision of cooked food) as defined in section 125 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006.
• Jointly and severally liable: where there are two or more Joint Tenants, each Joint Tenant is fully liable to the Landlord(s) for the obligations of the Tenant under this Agreement including, in particular, the obligation to pay rent.  This means the landlord can seek full payment of rent from any Joint Tenant. Each joint Landlord is fully liable to the Tenant(s) for the obligations of the Landlord under this Agreement.
• Landlord: includes any Joint Landlord (also see 'Jointly and severally liable' above).
• Let Property: the property rented by the Tenant from the Landlord.
• Letting Agent: a person who works for the Landlord of a Let Property and offers a range of services from finding suitable Tenants, collecting rent, arranging repairs etc.
• Neighbour: any person living in the neighbourhood
• Neighbourhood: the local area of the Let Property
• Notice to Leave: a specific form that your Landlord must complete and give to you if they wish to end your tenancy. A notice to leave which is not in this specific form is not valid.
• Overcrowding: A house is regarded as being overcrowded if it fails either of two tests - the room standard and/or the space standard (see definition of each test below).
• Private Residential Tenancy: a tenancy where the property is let to an individual as a separate dwelling; the Tenant occupies all or part of it as the Tenant's only or principal home; and the tenancy is not one which is excluded under schedule 1 of the Act.
• Registered Landlord: a person who is entered in the register prepared and maintained by the relevant local authority for the purposes of Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004.
• Rent: any sum payable periodically by the Tenant to the Landlord in connection with the tenancy (and includes, for the avoidance of doubt, any sums payable in respect of services, repairs, maintenance or insurance).
• Rent Control Area (RCA): a defined area in which Scottish Ministers have put a cap on how much rents for properties let under private residential tenancies can be increased by every 12 months. Rent increases in a RCA are limited to one per property per year (even if a new tenancy starts during this period). The amount the rent can be increased by in a RCA will be consumer prices index (CPI) plus 1%, up to a maximum of 6%. A RCA can last for up to 5 years but can be renewed by the Scottish Ministers after 5 years. The Scottish Ministers have powers to exempt specified properties from the rent cap, and to specify circumstances where a rent increase above the cap is allowed, via regulations. Some types of private rented sector property are exempt from the rent cap in RCAs, and there may also be some circumstances set out in legislation where a landlord is allowed to increase the rent by an amount higher than the rent cap.
• Rent-increase notice: the specific notice that a Landlord under a private residential tenancy must use when notifying a Tenant of a proposed rent increase. A rent-increase notice which is not in this specific form is not valid.
• Rent officer: an independent officer appointed, by the Scottish Ministers under the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984, who can decide how much rent is payable under a private residential tenancy. 
• Statutory terms: the terms which apply to every private residential tenancy.
• Tenant: includes any joint Tenant or joint sub-Tenant (also see 'Jointly and severally liable' above)
• The Tribunal: the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber. This is the body which deals with all civil disputes arising from a private residential tenancy.
• The room standard: this is contravened when two people of opposite sexes, who are not living as husband and wife, have to sleep in the same room. This does not apply to children under 10. The rooms regarded as sleeping accommodation are defined as being 'of a type normally used in the locality either as a bedroom or as a living room'. (See section 136 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987).
• The space standard: sets limits on the number of people who can occupy a house, relative to both the number and floor area of the rooms available as sleeping accommodation. For this purpose, children aged at least one but less than 10 count as half of a person, while children under the age of one do not count at all. Rooms of less than 50 square feet are not taken into account. (See section 136 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987).

Declaring for the purposes of this Agreement that words in the singular include the plural, and where there are two or more persons included in the expression "the Tenant" the obligations and conditions to be met by "the Tenant", including payment of the rent, apply to all such persons jointly and severally.