Information for private landlords

Private landlords must register with Fife Council if they wish to legally let their property. If you have not submitted an application, you are letting illegally. If the council is notified that you are letting without a valid landlord registration, it will request you apply immediately.

Please see our Landlord Accreditation page for more information, including how to apply.

More information and advice on the Section 11 process, and what is required, can be found on our Section 11 Notice page.

Universal Credit

As a private landlord, you can help your tenants understand their Universal Credit claim, and what they can do to ensure their housing costs are being paid..

Information on what advice you can give to your tenant about universal credit, and what it means for you as a private landlord, can be found below:

What Universal Credit means for landlords - Understanding Universal Credit

Universal Credit | Fife Council

Local Housing Allowance 

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is the name for Housing Benefit for private tenants.

Please see table below for LHA Rates Payable (Weekly) in Fife for 2025 - 2026:

Please visit our Local Housing Allowance webpage, for more information. This includes LHA direct payment to landlord, under certain circumstances.

Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP)

A Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) is a short-term payment awarded to people who need help paying their rent. An award is payable for a period of 6 or 12 months, depending on their circumstances.

Short Term Housing Support

Short Term Housing Support is a service that helps tenants of both social and private housing with a range of tasks, to help them to sustain their tenancies. It's a service provided by Fife Council through several partner organisations, such as Link Living and The Richmond Fellowship Scotland.

Tasks that a tenant can receive help with include:

• Debt
• Budgeting
• Healthy living
• Household skills

To receive this service, referrals must be made to the Council. Landlords or tenants can contact us at STHS@fife.gov.uk  or by calling 07783807485, to request an application form or to get further advice.

Home Energy

Cosy Kingdom is a free and impartial energy and debt advice service, available to all landlords across Fife.

It’s a partnership between Greener Kirkcaldy, St Andrews Environmental Network and Citizens Advice & Rights Fife. More energy advice can be found online, on our Benefits and Money Advice section.

Private Sector Housing Options Officers

The Private Sector Housing Options Officers assist with helping Landlords and Tenants to sustain tenancies, through advice, signposting and referrals to partners and services.

Enquires can be sent to the team via email, at HousingOptions.PRS@fife.gov.uk

Neighbour issues - Anti-social behaviour 

As a private landlord, it is your responsibility for resolving any antisocial behaviour that happens in and around the home. This means if your tenants or their visitors are causing trouble, you have to try to put a stop to it.

Antisocial behaviour means behaving in a way which causes, or is likely to cause, alarm and distress to the community. It can include:

• abuse
• drug dealing
• vandalism and graffiti
• noise disturbances (loud music, noisy parties or shouting)
  • Domestic noise refers to amplified noise, noisy parties, DIY, playing musical instruments or dogs barking etc
  • Non-domestic noise refers to commercial noise, construction noise, car alarms etc
• threatening or violent behaviour

Antisocial behaviour is not always a crime but incidents of violence, suspected drug dealing, and hate crime should always be reported to the Police.

There are many ways you can receive a complaint of antisocial behaviour. These include:

• directly from the neighbours – your contact details are publicly available once you register as a landlord
• from the agent that manages the property
• from the local authority (if the neighbour has contacted them)
• from the tenants themselves

If you receive a complaint about your tenant/s or visitors to the property, you should take steps to resolve this. This includes:

• sending them a letter, explaining what you've been told and asking them to change their behaviour
• arranging a time to visit them and discuss the problem
• finding out the circumstances, understanding what the issue is and what the options are to fix it
• agreeing with your tenants what will change, recording it in writing and making sure you and your tenants both have a copy
• keeping a log of what steps you've taken, in case you need to prove later that you've tried to resolve it

It is also important to provide the complainant with an update. This can be once the complaint has been resolved or to let them know you're still in the process of resolving the complaint.

If you keep getting complaints after you've tried to resolve the situation with the tenant, you should consider what to do next.

Your options include:

• talking to your tenants again and telling them there are still issues
• asking the council to apply for an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) for the tenants or their visitors
• going to court to get an interdict to prevent your tenants behaving in a certain way
• evicting your tenants

If you don't do anything to stop your tenants' antisocial behaviour, we can take action. This can start with an antisocial behaviour notice (ASBN), which tells you, as the landlord, what you have to do to stop the problem. It may also affect your Landlord Registration status.

If you believe your tenant/s is suffering from anti-social behaviour by a neighbour or residents within the area, you should report this to us.

More information and advice on the correct way to report any issues can be found on our Anti-social behaviour page.

What is a tenancy deposit scheme?

When a deposit is paid to a private landlord or letting agency, they are required to register the deposit with a tenancy deposit scheme provider.

The three scheme providers in Scotland are:

• Letting Protection Service Scotland
• My Deposit Scotland
• Safe Deposit Scotland

Information that Landlords must give the scheme provider:

• their contact details
• their tenant's contact details
• details of the tenancy and property to which the deposit relate

When to register a tenant’s deposit?

A tenant’s deposit must be registered with a tenancy deposit scheme within 30 working days of the tenancy starting. If the tenancy is ended within this 30 working day period, so long as the deposit is returned to the tenant in full, the requirement to register the deposit does not apply.

What can happen if a private landlord fails to use a Tenancy Deposit Scheme

Where a Private Landlord has failed to place a tenant’s deposit into a tenancy deposit scheme, the tenant can make an application to the First Tier Tribunal. This can be done either during the tenancy, or up to three months after the tenancy has ended.

The tribunal can order the landlord to pay the tenant up to three times the amount of the deposit and to pay the deposit into a scheme as well as comply with the other requirements of the tenancy deposit scheme regulations.

Returning a deposit

Both landlord and tenant can apply for the deposit to be returned from the tenancy deposit scheme.

Tenants and Landlords must apply to have the deposit returned from the scheme as soon as is reasonably practicable, after the tenancy has ended. If the tenant applies before the landlord does, but the landlord applies within 30 days of the tenant submitting their application, then the scheme will progress the application of the landlord instead of the tenants.

In the application, both the tenant and landlord must decide the amount of the deposit they think should be:

• returned to the tenant, and
• returned to the landlord

Once the scheme provider has received either the tenant and landlord's applications, they will write to the tenant or landlord informing them of the amount that either party thinks should be returned. If the landlord is making no claim on the deposit, it will be returned in full to the tenant within five working days.

If the landlord is making a claim, then the scheme will write to the tenant to advise them how much the landlord is seeking. The tenant must respond to the scheme provider within 30 working days, stating whether they agree or disagree with this amount.

If the tenant disagrees, they should write to the scheme provider detailing the amount they believe should be returned to them. If the tenant does not write to the scheme provider to confirm or dispute the amount within 30 working days, the scheme provider will return an amount of money to the landlord, within five working days.

Private Residential Tenancy

You can put a tenant’s rent up any time in the first year of their tenancy, and then once every 12 months after that.

You must send a rent-increase notice at least 3 months in advance of the change. Visit the Scottish Government's Create a rent increase notice for your tenant page for guidance.

Assured and Short Assured Tenancy

To increase your tenant's rent, you must follow the rules you created in your tenancy agreement. The rent can only be increased once per year.

If your tenancy agreement does not state if the rent can be increased, then you must provide your tenant with a valid Notice to Leave and AT2.

Expiry of The Rent Adjudication

As of April 2025, the Rent Adjudication process will revert back to existing legal requirements, which rent increases will be based on Market Rent.

Applications for a rent adjudication that have yet to be finalised or that are being appealed, will continue to be decided on the basis of the temporary changes.

Fife Private Rental Solutions (FPRS) is for landlords who are interested in letting property in the private rented sector. FPRS provides a bespoke service including:

• advice and guidance on all legislative property requirements
• mediation/resolution of any issues with the tenancy
• rent resolution/negotiation for arrears, advanced income maximisation and advice on funding options for rent in advance for tenants, deposit guarantee to secure a tenancy
• general advice for Private Landlords

FPRS are an ethical letting agent and can offer the following paid services to landlords:

• full property management service
• let only service
• one of property services

Further advice and information can be sought from FPRS directly on the contact details below:

• Phone: 01592 201849
• Email: info@fprs.co.uk
• Web: Home - Fife Private Rental Solutions

Ending a Private Residential Tenancy

Your tenant must have a private residential tenancy, if their tenancy began on or after 1st December 2017, or was converted to a private residential tenancy on or after that date. You can only end a private residential tenancy if one of the 18 grounds for eviction applies.

• Notice to Leave:
  • To end the tenancy, you must give your tenant a Notice to Leave.
  • The notice tells them which of the eviction grounds apply (the reason why you are asking them to leave), and the expiry date of the notice.
  • The tenant has the right to remain in their current property until an eviction order has been granted by the First Tier Tribunal. This can only happen after the NTL/NTQ period has expired.
• Sending the notice:
  • If you send the Notice by recorded delivery post, or by email, the law says you must add an extra two days to the notice period. This is to allow time for the Notice to arrive.
  • The notices to be used with private residential tenancies, including the Notice to Leave, are available on the Scottish Government website.
  • Landlords can also find Guidance Notes for Tenants – you should download these and give them to your tenant with the Notice to Leave. This will help them to understand what the Notice means.
  • You can also create and download a Notice to Leave
• Eviction orders:
  • If you give your tenant a Notice to Leave, and they do not move out as soon as the notice period ends, you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) for an eviction order.
  • Before submitting an application to the Tribunal for an eviction order, you must inform the local authority of your intention to apply to the Tribunal. You must do this by completing a Section 11 Notice. This notice, and more information, can be found at on our Section 11 web page.

Ending a short assured tenancy/assured tenancy

Short assured and assured tenancies are for a fixed length of time (at least six months). Tenants who moved in before 1st December 2017 will have this type of tenancy.

Repossession before or at tenancy end date:

• If the tenancy has come to a natural end, and you wish to take the tenancy back, providing you issued a valid AT5 notice at the beginning of the tenancy, you must provide your tenant with 
  • A Notice To Quit
  • a Section 33 Notice
• A valid AT6 Notice should be served when you are taking the property back for any reason other than the tenancy coming to its natural end. You must advise what grounds you are using to do this.

Further advice and information on Private Residential Tenancy, Short Assured Tenancy/Assured Tenancy, eviction process, and templates to the notice mentioned above can be found at:

Ending a tenancy as a landlord - mygov.scot

Get Housing Advice - Shelter Scotland

Preventing Homelessness

Private Landlords will be contacted by a Housing Options Officer to discuss the implications for the tenant. They will negotiate a resolution and try to prevent homelessness where possible.

Prevention work will be around:

• Rent arrears including:
  • a shortfall in Universal Credit or housing benefit
• Income maximisation
  • Challenging & appealing benefits or tax credit decisions
• Seeking support for vulnerable households to sustain the tenancy
• Referral for short term housing support (STHS) allowing tenancy sustainment

In certain cases, the Housing Options Officer may refer households for welfare support based on the household circumstances.

Housing Option Officers will support landlords to direct their tenants to access council or partner services to support their tenants at risk of homelessness.