Three things happen to Scotland's private rented sector on 6 October. The biggest, in pure financial terms, is that wrongful termination compensation goes from a ceiling of six months' rent to a range of 3 to 36 times the monthly rent. If the First-tier Tribunal decides you misled a tenant or the Tribunal itself into ending a tenancy, the number at the end of that finding is now potentially six times larger.

The succession qualifying period also drops from twelve months to six. And landlords take on new duties around damp and mould, with deadlines counted in working days.The first two are about risk. The third is about process, and it is the one most agencies are least ready for.

Scope: private residential tenancies in Scotland. Housing is devolved, so England, Wales and Northern Ireland work differently.

Where These Changes Come From

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 is being switched on in stages, with the main dates falling on 1 April 2026, 1 August 2026, 6 October 2026 and 1 April 2027.

Two of October's changes come from that Act, through the Commencement No. 3 Regulations:

Read those trigger conditions properly. Neither cares when you served notice or when proceedings started. Section 34 turns on when the tenancy ended. Section 48 turns on when the tenant died. A case that has been running since March can still land under the new rules.

The damp and mould duties come from somewhere else entirely, the Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026. Worth knowing, because if you go looking for them in the Housing (Scotland) Act commencement regulations you will not find them.

Wrongful Termination Payments

 If a landlord misleads a tenant, or the Tribunal, into ending a tenancy, the former tenant can apply for compensation. From 6 October that compensation sits between 3 and 36 times the monthly rent. Where the monthly rent is lower than £840, the £840 figure is used instead when calculating the payment. The Scottish Government sets out the change on its ending a tenancy guidance. 

That floor is easy to skip past and shouldn't be. Low-rent arrangements have historically produced low awards. They won't now. Take a property at £900 a month. The current six-month maximum works out at £5,400. From October the range runs £2,700 to £32,400.

Succession Rights

Where a tenant dies, certain members of the household can succeed to the tenancy provided they have lived there for a set period. From 6 October that period halves, from twelve months to six, for deaths on or after that date.

Most landlords will never deal with this. Worth knowing it changed, not worth building a process around.

Damp and Mould Duties: Awaab's Law

From 6 October, private and social landlords must investigate reports of damp and mould and begin any required repairs within set timescales, subject to the circumstances set out in the regulations.

Three deadlines:

• Investigate within 10 working days of the report

• Written summary of the findings within 3 working days of the investigation

• Start any required repairs within 5 working days of the investigation

The Scottish Government said it was working to publish guidance by the end of summer 2026. At the time of writing that has not appeared, which is worth watching for, because it may well add detail to how these duties work in practice.

These regulations are the first stage of Awaab's Law in Scotland. The name comes from Awaab Ishak, who died in 2020, aged two, from a respiratory condition caused by mould in his family's housing association flat in England.

The Part That Will Catch People Out

Everything above is straightforward to read and difficult to actually do.

The deadlines run from two events: the report and the investigation. So you need to know, precisely, when a tenant told you there was mould, and when someone went to look.

Ask yourself where a report would land today. A tenant might phone the office. Or text a negotiator directly. Or mention it while someone is there doing an inspection. Or email during a week when that inbox belongs to someone on holiday. In most agencies, several of those routes exist simultaneously and none of them produces a timestamp.

Which means the realistic failure isn't missing a deadline. It's discovering, three weeks in, that a clock started and nobody noticed.

Before October, you want:

• One place damp and mould reports land, whatever route the tenant uses to make contact

• A recorded date for the report, and a separate recorded date for the investigation

• Deadlines running automatically off both

• A written summary template, because the summary is its own deliverable with its own three-day window

• Findings, required works and repair start dates you can pull up later without hunting

Service request and task management exists to make that automatic rather than manual. But the point stands whatever you use: a process that depends on somebody remembering will not reliably hit a deadline measured in working days.

Why the Wrongful Termination Change Matters More Than It Looks

Scotland got rid of no-fault evictions in 2017. A landlord seeking possession has always needed a ground and a Tribunal order. Structurally, October changes nothing.

What changes is what it costs to be wrong.

Several grounds turn on the landlord stating an intention: to sell, to move in, to carry out works. Intentions are slippery things to prove. A landlord who genuinely meant to sell, and then had the sale collapse, is in a completely different moral position from one who never intended to sell at all. The Tribunal cannot see the difference directly. It can only see what's in the file.

Under the old ceiling the maximum was six months' rent. From October it is considerably more than that.

What to Do About It

Build the file as you go. That's the whole answer, and it's less satisfying than a checklist because it's a habit rather than a task.

Seeking possession to sell? The file should carry the agent instruction, the valuation, the solicitor's engagement, all dated. If the sale then falls through, that record is the difference between a genuine intention overtaken by events and a ground that looks like a pretext.

Same for moving in yourself or for family. What did you intend when you served notice, and what actually happened afterwards.

And if things change once the tenant has gone, write down when and why. A property back on the rental market three months after you used a sale ground looks bad. It looks considerably less bad with a contemporaneous note explaining the collapse of the sale.

Before 6 October

Check where your live cases will land. The trigger is when the tenancy ends. Anything completing after 5 October falls under the new range regardless of when you started.

Look at the files behind any intention-based notice. Imagine a Tribunal reading them in a year. If that thought is uncomfortable, act on it now.

Build the damp and mould workflow. This is the one that needs actual construction rather than a decision. Give yourself time to test it before the duties bite.

Watch for the guidance. It was expected by the end of summer.

Tell your people. Whoever serves notices, whoever fields repair calls. The exposure has changed and they need to know.

Confirmed for 1 April 2027

Rent adjudication. Tenants get up to 30 days to apply for a rent increase review. And a Rent Officer or the Tribunal will no longer be able to set a rent higher than the landlord originally asked for. At the moment a referral can end with the rent set at market level, which has understandably discouraged tenants from challenging.

Ending a joint tenancy. One joint tenant will be able to end the tenancy for everyone without needing agreement from the others. Written pre-notice of at least two months and no more than three goes to the other joint tenants and the landlord, then a final 28-day notice on the landlord, with a copy to the other tenants within a set timescale.

What Has No Date At All

Here is where a lot of published commentary is simply wrong, and it's worth being blunt about it.

Rent increases in the first 12 months. The Act contains this provision. No date has been set. If you have read an article stating this rule is already in force, and there are several, it is incorrect as at the date of this piece.

Pets. A right to request in writing, which landlords cannot unreasonably refuse, with a 30-day response requirement. Conditions and grounds for refusal to be set out in regulations after further consultation. No date.

Personalising a home. Greater rights to decorate and make changes after six months in the property, split between minor changes needing no consent and larger ones that cannot be unreasonably refused. No date.

Unlawful eviction damages. Also moving to 3 to 36 times monthly rent with the same £840 floor, removing the need for a professional valuation. Separate from wrongful termination. No date.

Delays to eviction enforcement. The Tribunal will have to consider whether delaying enforcement would be reasonable, after hearing from both sides. Factors include financial hardship and health effects, including those relating to disability or terminal illness, on both the tenant's household and the landlord. Antisocial conduct, criminal convictions, domestic abuse and vacant or abandoned properties are exempt. No date.

Where Rent Control Has Actually Got To

Nowhere, yet. The legal framework for assessing and designating rent control areas came into force on 1 April 2026. No area has been designated anywhere in Scotland, and realistically none can be until the council assessments are done. Local authorities must assess rent conditions in their area and report to Scottish Ministers at least once every five years, with the first reports due no later than 31 May 2027. Those reports feed the designation decisions.

If an area does get designated, increases would be capped at CPI plus one percentage point to a maximum of 6%, applying both during and between tenancies. Some categories of property are to be exempt. Separately, Scottish Ministers have to review repossession grounds and report to the Scottish Parliament by 7 November 2027.

One Thing That Isn't Devolved

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 provisions making it an offence to discriminate against people in the private rental market because they have children or receive benefits took effect on 1 May 2026 and apply in Scotland. The Scottish Government has published its own guidance on how this works here.

Where That Leaves You

Scotland didn't need to abolish no-fault evictions this year. It did that in 2017. What's happening now is a tightening: sharper consequences for getting the existing rules wrong, plus new operational duties that didn't exist before.

The wrongful termination change alters the arithmetic on any possession action resting on a stated intention. If you act in good faith and keep a proper file, it doesn't create the same evidential problem as a case where the stated ground simply cannot be supported. The file is the thing.

The damp and mould duties are different in kind. They need a process, and for most agencies that process doesn't exist yet. There is time to fix that. Not a lot, but enough to build something and test it before the duties start rather than after.One last thing worth holding onto: quite a lot of the 2025 Act still has no commencement date. Treating those provisions as live, because an article said so, is a risk of its own.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What Changes for Scottish Landlords on 6 October 2026?
Three things. Wrongful termination compensation rises from a maximum of six months' rent to between 3 and 36 times the monthly rent. The succession qualifying period falls from twelve months to six. And landlords must investigate reports of damp and mould within 10 working days, provide a written summary within 3 working days of the investigation, and begin required repairs within 5 working days of the investigation.

2. How Much Can Wrongful Termination Compensation Be From 6 October 2026?
Between 3 and 36 times the monthly rent. Where the monthly rent is lower than £840, £840 is used instead when calculating the payment. The current maximum is six months' rent.

3. What Are the Awaab's Law Timescales in Scotland?
Investigate within 10 working days of the report, produce a written summary within 3 working days of the investigation, and begin any required repairs within 5 working days of the investigation. The duties start on 6 October 2026, come from the Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026, and apply to private and social landlords.

4. Can I Increase Rent in the First 12 Months of a Scottish Tenancy?
The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 contains a provision preventing this, but gov.scot states that no date has been set for it to come into force. Several published articles describe the rule as already applying. Check gov.scot before relying on either position.

5. Has Rent Control Started in Scotland?
No. The framework for assessing and designating rent control areas came into force on 1 April 2026, but no area has been designated. Local authorities must report to Scottish Ministers by 31 May 2027 at the latest. In any area eventually designated, increases would be capped at CPI plus one percentage point, to a maximum of 6%.

Important Notice

This article applies to Scotland only. Housing law is devolved and the position differs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Information was accurate as at 17 August 2026 and is based on Scottish Government policy guidance, the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 3) Regulations 2026, and the Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026. The 2025 Act is being commenced in stages and several provisions require further secondary legislation. Guidance on the damp and mould duties was expected by the end of summer 2026 and may add detail to the requirements described here.

Always check the current position on gov.scot and legislation.gov.uk before serving notice or taking possession action.

This content is general information only and does not constitute legal advice. RIOO is not a law firm. Possession proceedings, wrongful termination claims and repairing obligations carry significant legal and financial consequences. Consult a solicitor qualified in Scots law before taking action.