Private rented housing: pre-action protocols and seeking repossession on rent arrears grounds

Guidance for private landlords on pre-action protocols and seeking repossession of private rented housing on rent arrears grounds.


This page is in the process of being reviewed.

If a tenant has a private residential tenancy, the law states that they and their landlord must use certain forms/notices for certain purposes. These forms/notices are provided below, along with associated guidance for tenants and landlords. If you are giving one of these documents to a tenant or landlord, you should also provide them with the relevant guidance notes to help them understand what the document means for them and what they can do about it.

Separate guidance notes for landlords and tenants are provided below with the notice to leave, rent-increase notice, tenant's notice of an application to the First-tier Tribunal and the sub-tenant's notice to leave.

The Private Residential Tenancies prescribed notices and forms are:

  • notice to leave (and related guidance notes for tenants and landlords)

  • rent-increase notice (and related guidance notes for tenants and landlords)

  • tenant's notice to landlord of intention to apply to First-tier Tribunal (and related guidance notes for tenants and landlords)

  • sub-tenant's notice to leave (and related guidance notes for tenants and landlords)

  • rent increase referral by a tenant to a Rent Officer

  • improvements application by a landlord to a Rent Officer for a rent increase in a rent pressure zone.

The Scottish Government has produced online tools to help users to create and download the following notices:

For landlords:

 For tenants:

Notice to leave

Notice to Leave.pdf
Guidance notes for tenants on the notice to leave.pdf
Guidance notes for landlords on the notice to leave.pdf

Sub-tenants

Sub-Tenancy Notice to Leave.pdf
Guidance notes for sub-tenants on the notice to leave.pdf

First-Tier tribunal

Rent officers

Application by a Landlord to a Rent Officer.pdf
Referral by a Tenant to a Rent Officer.pdf
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