Today we released a report that finds that three quarters of tenants have been in a joint tenancy agreement. And of those three quarters, nearly half (48.8%) of them have had a rent increase when a flatmate moved out - a so-called joint tenancy increase.
Our report also found that one in twenty tenants in joint tenancies (5.4%) had their flatmates refuse their request to leave for fear it would lead to the landlord increasing the rent.
Not being able to leave a joint tenancy can also trap people in dangerous situations, with 29.5% of those who have been in a joint tenancy experiencing inter-flat or inter-couple conflict, abuse or difficulties that impacted their tenancy.
The Scottish Government’s new Housing (Scotland) Bill creates powers for the introduction of new Rent Control Areas, in which rent increases in the private rented sector (PRS) are limited both in and crucially between tenancies.
This system of controlling between tenancy rent increases means that the highest permissible rent level on a new tenancy would be determined based on the rent paid by the previous tenants at the end of their tenancy.
In our report we argue that any successful system of rent controls relies on limits on increases being carried over from tenancy to tenancy.
This is due to the fact that with landlords being able to increase rent between tenancies, this incentivises evictions, leads to steep rent hikes between tenancies and deters tenants from feeling able to leave their homes as they fear high rents elsewhere.
You can read our report and our recommendations here:
