How to Set Up a Tenancy in Scotland: Step-by-Step Landlord Guide

Setting up a private residential tenancy in Scotland without a letting agent is straightforward once you know the sequence. Get the order wrong and you face fines, tribunal claims, or a tenancy that starts on legally shaky ground.

Most new private residential lets in Scotland are Private Residential Tenancies under the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016. A let must meet the Act's tenancy test and not fall within a Schedule 1 exclusion. PRTs are open-ended; new assured and short assured tenancies are no longer created under the former regime. Here is the compliance sequence from start to finish.

Register as a Landlord Before Letting

Before letting, you must be registered or have a valid application pending with every local authority where you let property. The principal fee is £85, plus £20 per additional property. Applying to additional council areas at the same time gives a 50% discount on subsequent principal fees (£42.50). Letting without applying is a criminal offence — the fine is up to £50,000, and a late application costs £170 on top.

Your registration number or the council-issued reference for a pending application must appear in every property listing, alongside the exact rent and the property's EPC rating. Blanket bans such as "No DSS" or "No Children" in adverts are unlawful under Part 1A of the 2016 Act.

Gather Your Safety Certificates

Before handing over keys, the property must meet the Repairing Standard under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006. You need:

• EICR — valid for 5 years, by a qualified electrician
• Gas Safety Record (CP12) — annual, by a Gas Safe registered engineer
• Interlinked smoke, heat and CO alarms — mains-powered or sealed long-life lithium battery in every living room, hallway and kitchen, with CO detectors near any fuel-burning appliance
• EPC — required for the letting, with its efficiency rating shown in the property listing
• Legionella risk assessment — documented before the tenant moves in

If the property houses three or more unrelated people in three or more households, you also need an HMO licence from the local authority before anyone moves in.

Choose and Complete the Tenancy Agreement

You have two options:

1. Scottish Government Model PRT — generated through the mygov.scot tenancy tool. It fills in mandatory statutory terms automatically (shown in bold). The catch: it is a single-session generator with no save function, and it omits practical clauses like garden maintenance, utility transfers, and parking.
2. Bespoke agreement — drafted by a solicitor or assembled yourself. Mandatory statutory terms still apply whether you include them or not — the law overrides any clause that contradicts them.

Whichever you choose, the written terms must reach the tenant on or before the tenancy start date. If they are missing, the tenant must first give the prescribed 28-day written notice; if you do not remedy the omission within that period, the tenant can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for compensation of up to three months' rent.

Match the Right Notes to Your Agreement

This is the step landlords most commonly get wrong. The law requires you to serve a specific set of accompanying notes, and the set depends entirely on which agreement format you used:

• Model PRT → Easy Read Notes (ISBN 9781836011217)
• Bespoke agreement → Private Residential Tenancy Statutory Terms Supporting Notes

Serving the wrong notes is treated the same as serving none at all. The penalty: up to three months' rent for the wrong notes, up to six months' rent if both the terms and the notes are missing.

Protect the Deposit Within 30 Working Days

Scotland uses custodial-only deposit schemes — insured schemes are not permitted. The three approved schemes are SafeDeposits Scotland, mydeposits Scotland, and Letting Protection Service Scotland. The deposit cap is two months' rent.

You must lodge the full deposit and send the tenant the scheme's prescribed information within 30 working days of the tenancy start. A breach here carries a mandatory tribunal award of between one and three times the deposit value.

Document Everything on Move-In Day

The mygov.scot tool generates a tenancy agreement but produces no delivery receipt, no inventory sign-off, and no record that the tenant received the right notes. That proof falls entirely on you in any tribunal dispute.

Prepare a document delivery log covering the agreement, the notes, every safety certificate, the EPC, and the deposit prescribed information. Get the tenant to sign and date it. If you are serving documents electronically, you need the tenant's explicit written consent first — emailing a PDF without prior consent does not satisfy the statutory requirement.

What Comes Next

Once the tenancy is live, your ongoing obligations include annual gas safety checks, responding to any written pet request within 30 days (blanket bans are prohibited under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025), and investigating any reported damp or mould within 10 working days under Awaab's Law.

If you want the full compliance sequence laid out with the notes-matching matrix, document delivery logs, and a dated move-in checklist you can work through line by line, the Scotland PRT Setup Guide covers every step from registration to Day 1 and beyond.

See more Scotland guides →