Short Scottish Secure Tenancy for homeowners: guidance for social landlords

7. Creating a short SST for homeowners

7.1 To create a short SST for a homeowner the landlord must serve a notice on the prospective tenant under section 34(4) of the 2001 Act, which must:

• be in the notice form prescribed in regulations by Scottish Ministers^[6];
• state that the tenancy is a short SST for a homeowner created under paragraph 7A of schedule 6 of the 2001 Act; and
• specify the term of the tenancy, which must be for at least six months in the first instance.

7.2 If an existing Scottish secure tenant, or someone who lives with them, becomes a property owner during the term of the tenancy, the tenancy cannot then be converted to a short SST for homeowners. This is because the ownership of, or value of, heritable property can only be considered when allocating a social housing property at the time the original allocation is made, and there is no basis to revisit the allocation of a secure tenancy.

7.3 The ownership of, or value of, heritable property could however be considered in subsequent social housing allocation decisions, depending on the landlord’s rules on taking property ownership into account in allocations.