Whether registered social landlords are required to offer accommodation to homeless applicants referred to them by local authorities under …

Section 5 of the Housing(Scotland) Act 2001 requires that a registered sociallandlord (RSL) must comply, within a reasonable period, with a local authority’srequest to provide accommodation for a homeless household, which is unintentionallyhomeless with a priority need, unless it has good reason not to. Section 5 alsorequires that the accommodation must be a Scottish secure tenancy (or in cases wherethere is antisocial behaviour order or where there has been an eviction on antisocialbehaviour grounds in the last three years, a short Scottish secure tenancy) unlessan express request for other accommodation has been made by the local authority.
Scottishministers have issued guidance on what constitutes “good reason” for refusal ofa request. This states that, where an RSL is unable to make appropriate accommodationavailable within six weeks then it has good reason for non-compliance. An RSL alsohas a good reason for non-compliance if the only accommodation it has availableis of a specialist nature and this is not appropriate for the applicant. antisocialbehaviour is not one of the grounds which provide good reason not to comply.