Petition PE721, which was lodged by Alan McLauchlan, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to produce authoritative guidelines in relation to provisions contained in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 and to ensure that those guidelines and adequate advice on the act are available to all tenants who sublet, assign, or exercise the right of other provisions contained within the act. Before it was formally lodged, the petition was hosted on the e-petitioner site, where it gathered two electronic signatures during the period 23 February 2004 to 20 March 2004.Section 32 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 provides that a tenant of a Scottish secure tenancy may sublet the tenancy with the landlord's consent. The landlord may withhold consent only if there are reasonable grounds for doing so. The act does not specify the length of time for which a tenancy may be sublet and the explanatory notes to the act offer no guidance on the matter.The petitioner's landlord refuses to allow a subletting for longer than six months or, in exceptional circumstances, one year. It is open to the petitioner to appeal to the court by way of summary application if he considers that consent was unreasonably withheld. I remind members that the committee cannot become involved in the petitioner's individual case, but that we may discuss the issues that the petition raises. Do members have views on the petition?
Official Report · Committee
New Petitions
Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 (PE721)
Speakers
Choose an MSP to read only their contributions- Michael McMahon Lab 2
- Linda Fabiani SNP 1
- John Scott Con 1
The record
4 contributionsI should say that I am a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland. In fact, I am a fellow of the institute—I was promoted.I recognise that the petition is about an individual case, but I have dealt with similar cases in the past. Given the way in which people live nowadays, there are times when subletting and assigning are sensible courses of action. Sometimes the term of the subletting should be longer than six months or even a year. For example, someone might have an overseas contract for two years or they might go away to study. Should someone have to give up their home because they are going away to study for two years? The petition raises an issue.Of course, we cannot comment on an individual case. Every case is different: sometimes a longer subletting is justified and sometimes people just want to screw the system—that is just the way life is. We could ask for comments from the people who know what is happening on the ground, such as the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland. We could also ask the Minister for Communities to comment in relation to the 2001 act, as there might have been good reasons why it was drafted as it was. I do not think that there is anything else that we can do at the moment.
The specific case that the petitioner raises is definitely a matter for the courts. It is for the tenant to prove that consent has been unreasonably withheld and that can happen only in the context of an appeal to the court. We cannot get involved in the individual case, however valid it might be. That is not a job for us. However, it would be reasonable to ask the Executive whether it intends to produce guidelines along the lines that the petitioner proposes, given that there appear to be no such guidelines.
Are members happy to follow Linda Fabiani's recommendation and to contact the organisations that she suggested?Members indicated agreement.
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