Whether it has any plans to introduce a mandatory national tenant deposit scheme for private landlords and tenants, on similar lines to the…

Provisions in theHousing (Scotland) Act 2006 give ministers the power to introduce a mandatorytenancy deposit scheme in Scotland. A working group of stakeholdersrepresenting the interests of private landlords and tenants has agreed thatfurther work should be carried out to develop an evidence base on the scale of the problem of unfairly withheld deposits in order to consider whether amandatory scheme is needed in Scotland.
The ScottishGovernment is therefore planning to carry out detailed surveys of both tenantsand landlords to gather this evidence. An audit of current good practice isalso being undertaken to consider whether further improvements to existingpractice, such as training for landlords and advice available to tenants, couldbe encouraged without the need for a mandatory scheme. In addition, it will beimportant to consider the impact of recent initiatives to improve standards inthe private rented sector, such as the mandatory landlord registration schemeand the forthcoming national voluntary landlord accreditation scheme. Overtime, these schemes should help to tackle any landlords or letting agents whoare found to have unfairly withheld their tenants’ deposits.