Scottish landlords ignoring the law – required repairs ignored say Citizens Advice

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has revealed an alarming number of landlords are not fulfilling their duty to their tenants.

They that in the last two years, their advisors have issued repair advice on over 5,600 occasions.

This job is supposed to be the responsibility of the home owner, but with so many renters being neglected, CAS are wary of a bad pattern.

Common problems include damp, mould, infestation, and broken boilers.

When these problems spread, it can have negative effects on tenants health.

The common cold, flu and respiratory issues are common in cold, damp and mouldy conditions.

The most extreme example was a man who considered becoming homeless, as he believed shelter conditions would be better.

When publishing the report, its writer Aoife Deery said: “This research shines a light on the state of housing repairs and maintenance in Scotland, and much of it is not a pretty sight.

“We already know that rented sector tenants are often financially vulnerable. To find that they are also having problems getting basic repairs done is a real concern, and even worse is that some of them fear losing their home if they request the repair.

“When you rent a property you sign a tenancy, which includes the rights and responsibilities of the tenants, but also the obligation on landlords to make sure the property meets the repairing standard.

“This is a legal requirement, not an option they can choose to neglect.”

The Scottish government estimates that 15% of homes in the country are privately rented, with 23% under social rent.

That totals to 988,000 homes, which considering latest figures are from 2020, could be close to 1m by now.

Living with a leak

One such renter is Orla McLaughlin from Dundee, who has experienced two months of leaks in her student flat.

She recounted her experience, saying: “During storm Babet, it started leaking.

“So, we got in touch with the landlord. She said there would be roof works carried out, that took over a week until they were done.

“And then kind of a lack of updates. They just kept saying they needed to wait for my room to dry out before they could repaint it.

“About a month later, it started leaking again.

“So we got in touch again saying the roof works clearly haven’t worked.

“So they got roof works in again, said it was fine; but the water was still leaking.

“I sent a message saying if it wasn’t resolved by the end of the week, I would contact the first tier tribunal housing and seek compensation.

“Immediately after that, she phoned me and started getting stuff sorted, she got a bit of a fright.

“Someone came in to repaint my room, they said they would come back to put on another coat the next week, that was three weeks ago and they’ve still not been back.

“She’s now saying it’s not a problem with the roof, but a problem with some sort of structure in the building.”

“She’s been a great landlord other than that, just with the storm, it wasn’t great.”

What needs to be done

Orla’s problems are unfortunately not unique for Scottish renters.

According to CAS, most landlords do a good job taking care of their tenants, but some are neglectful or simply unable to help.

Aoife Deery told the Glasgow Standard: “It’s important to say that a lot of landlords carry out repairs quickly and properly.

“But it’s not good enough that some don’t.

“We identified a number of barriers to getting repairs done on the landlord’s part.

“What it often came down to was funding.

“Where its social housing we want to see the Scottish Government work with councils to increase the amount of funding available to them.

“Where its landlords who don’t have access to do the repairs, we think there should be better insurance options.”

“We have a number of other recommendations in the report for improving enforcement on landlords who don’t carry out repairs.

“It’s very difficult to have a landlord removed from the landlord registration scheme, so we want to see better enforcement.

“We don’t want to see those landlords operate in the sector, because they’re bringing good landlords into disrepute.”

There is also always the option of legal action, like Orla suggested.

But Aoife said that CSA’s clients are often reluctant to take their landlords to court due to the hassle involved.

The suggested solution is to simply make the option more clear and accessible for tenants.

CSA hopes that with the release of the report, their recommendations will be considered, and less people will have issues with repairs as a result.