§ Mr. SillarsTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what statutory measures the Government have taken to amend housing legislation where reference to rateable value of a dwelling house helped define tenancy, in the light of the abolition of domestic rates.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonSchedule 10 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 defined tenancies for which a landlord had a statutory basic repairing obligation by means of rateable value. The Housing (Scotland) Act 1988 amended that provision to empower the Secretary of State instead to set a rent level up to which the statutory repairing obligation would apply. The Landlord's Repairing Obligations (Specified Rent) (Scotland) (No. 2) Order 1988, (SI 1988 No. 2155) which came into force on 2 January 1989, set that rent level at £300 per week. This means that the landlord will have these repairing obligations if the rent is less than that figure.
Rateable value is also used to define certain tenancies which are not protected under the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984. However, the rateable value in these cases is historic —the value appearing on the valuation roll on 23 March 1965 (except where the house appeared on the roll for the first time later). Accordingly there is no need to amend those provisions.