What changed on 1 May 2026

On 1 May 2026, a new criminal offence went live in Scotland. Refusing to let a property to a person who claims housing benefits, Universal Credit housing element, or has dependent children is now unlawful. Advertising against doing so is unlawful too. Maximum fine £1,000 per offence. This article publishes on day 29 of the rule being in force.

The trigger is the live wording, not the live tenancy. A "No DSS" line buried in a Rightmove or Citylets listing from 2024, still visible today, is itself in scope. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 is the instrument. We are four weeks in. Take a sweep of your portal feeds this afternoon. The rest of this article is a map of the rules around it.

What is LIVE right now

These are the rules in force today. None of them are coming. The question is whether you are actually compliant.

Anti-discrimination listing rules — 1 May 2026

Criminal offence under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025. Up to £1,000 per offence. Covers every live advert, application form and screening conversation — including the verbal handling of phone enquiries. "No DSS", "no benefits", "no children", "working tenants only" or any equivalent wording in adverts, screening criteria or affordability rules. All now unlawful. Affordability tests that disregard benefits income fall foul too. Income-to-rent ratios, guarantor checks and reference checks remain lawful — the bright line is treating benefits income as inherently disqualifying.

Are you actually compliant? Audit every Rightmove, Zoopla, Citylets, OnTheMarket, Gumtree and SpareRoom listing under your name and any portal feed an agent publishes on your behalf. Source: Propertymark guidance issued April 2026; SAL practice guidance; legislation.gov.uk asp/2025/13.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax — 6 April 2026

Live since the start of the 2026/27 tax year for any landlord with gross rents above £50,000 on the 2024/25 return. First quarterly return due 7 August 2026. The threshold drops to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028. Most landlords reading this are inside the trajectory if not yet inside the threshold.

Worth an audit before next month. If you are above £50,000 and have not picked an HMRC-approved tool, the August deadline is six weeks out. Pick one this week — Xero, FreeAgent, Hammock, QuickBooks or Sage — and link your Government Gateway. Source: HMRC; NRLA Making Tax Digital briefing; Bishop Fleming threshold note.

Expanded Repairing Standard — 1 March 2024

The biggest compliance jump since the PRT itself. SSI 2019/61 commenced on 1 March 2024. The January 2024 statutory guidance overlays sit on top.

The duties under the SSI: every electrical installation RCD-protected. A fixed heating system in every habitable room. A safe and usable kitchen. Common parts in scope for tenement properties. Non-gas fuels (oil, LPG, solid fuel) brought in.

The guidance adds three more. Lead-pipe absence between boundary stopcock and kitchen tap. Legionella risk assessment before first let. PAT testing of landlord-supplied portable appliances.

The lead-pipe duty is widely misread. The duty is absence, not testing. Testing is the evidence route where the run cannot be evidenced as lead-free — and discovery means removal, not flushing or filtering.

What this means in practice: a brief written record of when you checked the stopcock-to-tap run, what you saw (plastic, copper, or — if pre-1970 stock — possible lead), and how you documented it. Photograph the pipe-runs you can access. A registered plumber can confirm the run at the next gas safety visit if you cannot evidence it yourself.

Layered on top: interlinked smoke and heat alarms (live since 1 February 2022) are still the number-one Tribunal-cited Repairing Standard failure. Separate sealed 10-year units do not count. They have to be linked into a single mesh, wired or wireless.

Check this before the next inspection. If you ticked the alarm box pre-2022 with separate units, you are not compliant. If you have not audited lead pipework on pre-1970s stock, you are exposed. Source: legislation.gov.uk ssi/2019/61; gov.scot Repairing Standard Statutory Guidance for Private Landlords (January 2024); gov.scot fire safety guidance.

Landlord registration — ongoing duties

Up to 12 declarations on application and renewal since SSI 2019/195 — deposits, EPC, gas, electrical, repairing-standard self-certification, and HMO licensing where relevant. Fees are CPI-linked: principal individual fee rose from £82 to £85 on 1 April 2026. Late-registration fees are still double the principal — and now CPI-tracked too.

Find this in your records — or find it's missing. "I'm not sure when I last renewed" is a meaningful exposure. 71% of Scottish landlords own a single property (gov.scot FOI 202500481827) and 87% are aged 50 or above (SAL Portfolio Survey 2025). For landlords like that, the original registration may predate the modern system entirely. Source: gov.scot landlord registration guidance; SSI 2019/195.

What is COMING in 2026-2027

These are the dates already programmed into Royal Assent or laid regulations. Plan now, not in October.

Awaab's Law lands on the PRS — 6 October 2026

The Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026 (SSI 2026/173) commence on 6 October 2026 and apply equally to private landlords. The English origin of Awaab's Law was a child who died in social housing. The social-housing framing has stuck. Scotland is sweeping the PRS in too.

The clock: 10 working days to investigate damp or mould via a competent person once you become aware. 3 working days post-investigation to issue the tenant a written summary. 5 working days to commence repair where investigation says work is needed. 20 working days to complete a qualifying repair. Compensation is payable to the tenant for missed deadlines. Source: gov.scot news release; SPICe Spotlight (March 2026); TC Young briefing.

What this means in practice. A documented incident-logging process. A competent-person contractor relationship on retainer. Template tenant communications. A date-stamped photographic evidence protocol. Get the contractor relationship in place now — every PRS landlord in Scotland will be looking in October.

Rent control framework — 1 April 2026 to summer 2028 at the earliest

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 (Commencement No.3) Regulations 2026 brought the rent control framework into force on 1 April 2026. The framework is live; the caps are not. Local authorities must complete rent-condition assessments and report to Scottish Ministers by 31 May 2027. Ministers can then designate Rent Control Zones via further regulations — late 2027 at the earliest. Caps biting on the ground: summer 2028 at the earliest.

Inside a designated zone, in-tenancy and changeover rents will be capped at CPI+1 percentage point, hard ceiling 6%, once per 12 months. Mid-market rent and build-to-rent are exempted by regulations. Most rural authorities will not designate. Glasgow and Edinburgh are the likely first names. South and North Lanarkshire are the watch-this-space pair for PA's heartland.

What this means in practice: model a CPI+1% worst case into 5-year rent projections for urban portfolios. Do not act on rent caps that are not in force. Source: SSI 2026/115; Housing (Scotland) Act 2025; gov.scot rent controls policy page.

Inheritance Tax on unspent pensions — 6 April 2027

The 2024 Autumn Budget brought defined-contribution pension pots and most pension death benefits into the deceased's estate for IHT from 6 April 2027. Confirmed at Royal Assent of the Finance Act 2026 on 18 March 2026. UK-wide — applies in Scotland.

For 10-year landlords with portfolios held alongside pensions, this materially changes succession planning. Pensions stop being the IHT shelter they were. Whether to hold buy-to-let inside or outside the estate is now a different conversation. Spouse and registered-charity transfers remain exempt. Source: M&G technical note; Pensions Age coverage of Finance Act 2026 Royal Assent.

Section 24 tightens — 6 April 2027

Section 24 (the UK tax rule that replaced mortgage-interest-deductible-in-full with a 20% basic-rate credit) is changing again. From 6 April 2027, a new "property basic rate" of 22% replaces the current 20% mortgage-interest reducer — a 2pp uplift. Property basic, higher and additional rates will be 22%, 42% and 47%. Rental income will be taxed at higher rates than employment income for the first time in the UK tax code. Confirmed in Finance Act 2026; House of Commons Library briefing CBP-10450.

Most landlords think Section 24 finished tapering in 2020. The April 2027 step is real and material — particularly for mortgaged portfolios where the 20% reducer was already squeezing the cash position. Source: HoC Library CBP-10450; Property Tax Partners commentary.

EPC minimum standards — proposed only, never commenced

On 17 March 2026, Scottish Government formally pulled the October 2026 commencement of the 2025 Energy Efficiency (PRS) Regulations. The proposed C-by-2028 (new tenancies) and C-by-2033 (all PRS) trajectory remains policy intent. The timeline has slipped. Realistically: late 2027 or 2028 before any minimum bites. The 2020 draft that would have set E in 2020 and D in 2022 was never made.

Do not rush expensive fabric or heating upgrades in 2026. The EPC methodology itself is being overhauled UK-wide and current ratings may not survive the reset. Source: SAL "Delay to EPC reform" briefing; gov.scot policy page; Chalmers Properties 2026 update.

What is ALREADY WRONG — four misconceptions costing landlords money

Four pieces of folklore still circulating in Scottish landlord templates and forums. Each is wrong on the face of it.

"There's a Scottish EPC D-by-2025 rule"

There is not. Scotland has no minimum EPC rating in force today. The 2020 draft that would have introduced E in 2020 and D in 2022 was never made and has been formally dropped. Any rating can be let. The new proposal is C-by-2028 for new tenancies and 2033 for all PRS — but the October 2026 commencement was pulled in March. Cross-border guidance conflates English MEES with Scotland. England has had minimum E since 2018/2020. Scotland never enacted its draft. Landlords think they are in breach of a rule that does not exist.

"The pandemic 168-day notice period still applies"

It does not. Pandemic-era extended notice periods (28 / 84 / 168 days) lapsed on 30 March 2022 and have not been revived. Current PRT notice is 28 days where the tenant has been in occupation for 6 months or less. It is also 28 days where the notice is on grounds 10-15. Otherwise 84 days. No 168-day notice period exists in current PRT law.

The Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022 did make some pandemic measures permanent. It made the discretionary-grounds shift permanent under section 43, and it made the rent-arrears pre-action protocol permanent under sections 46-47. It did not extend notice periods. Templates with 168-day periods still circulate. A Notice to Leave drafted on the 168-day assumption carries the wrong period on its face and risks rejection at Tribunal.

"Discretionary grounds are easier"

The opposite. The Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022 converted previously mandatory PRT eviction grounds to discretionary, permanently. That covers rent arrears, breach of tenancy, criminal conviction and abandonment. The Tribunal now retains discretion on whether it is reasonable to grant the order even where the ground is technically established.

What this means: a clean paper trail is no longer enough on its own. The Tribunal asks whether enforcement is reasonable in the circumstances — arrears trajectory, tenant vulnerability, pre-action steps taken. Landlords who served pre-2022 with a "mandatory means automatic" mindset have lost orders at hearing. Pre-action protocol compliance is now a permanent feature of any arrears eviction.

"There's a between-tenancy rent cap"

There never was. The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 emergency cap applied only to in-tenancy rises. The cap was 0%, then 3% from 1 April 2023, with a 6% prescribed-cost-recovery route. Rent at the start of a fresh tenancy was free of the cap. Many landlords sat below market for two years thinking they could not reset between tenants.

That cap commenced on 28 October 2022 and expired on 1 April 2024. A separate transitional rent-adjudication taper under SSI 2024/89 then ran to 31 March 2025 — a distinct mechanism, not the cap itself. The longer-term rent control framework under the 2025 Act is the future. Even that will only bite inside designated Rent Control Zones — late 2027 at the earliest for any designation, summer 2028 at the earliest for caps biting on the ground. Watch this space.

Why the regulatory turbulence matters now

The SAL Portfolio Survey 2025 puts numbers on what most landlords already feel. 79% of withdrawing landlords cite "perceived hostility from government and politicians" as a reason. 69% cite regulation. 68% cite tax. Among the broader survey audience, 54% plan to shrink their portfolio in the next five years. Only 9% plan to grow. That is a 6-to-1 exit ratio inside SAL's professional member base.

Around 350 net landlords are leaving the Scottish Landlord Register every month since May 2024. 35,591 have left since 2016 (gov.scot Landlord Register data). Yet the PRS property count rose by 10,000 over the same window — the bottom drops out and the mid-tier absorbs the stock. Consolidation, not collapse.

And confidence has more than halved. The Rent Better project (Indigo House / Nationwide Foundation, longitudinal 2019-2024) measured Scottish landlord confidence in the sector's future. It was 41% in 2019 and 17% in 2024. Tenant confidence rose over the same window. Landlord confidence falling and tenant confidence rising is what a system change looks like.

If you feel overwhelmed by the pace of change, the data says you are not unusual. You are the majority. A lot of rules, a lot of dates, a lot of moving pieces — and the answer to "am I compliant?" is rarely a clean yes or no. The gap between "I think I'm broadly compliant" and "I know exactly where I stand" is where Tribunal applications come from. Closing that gap is what the Compliance Check is for. Eleven questions, two minutes.

One disclosure before the CTA. Property Angels is a letting agent. We earn a recurring management fee on flats that stay let with us and nothing on a clean compliance bill a landlord carries themselves. We do not earn referral fees from brokers, solicitors or contractors. The Compliance Check could land you with us as a managed client OR send you back to self-managing with the action list. Both are valid outcomes; only one earns PA money. Weigh that when you read the result.

The Compliance Check

We built the Property Angels Compliance Check as a 2-minute diagnostic for Scottish landlords. Eleven single-select questions covering the rules in this article. Property type, landlord registration, EPC rating, gas safety, EICR, interlinked alarms, deposit protection, tenancy type, Legionella risk assessment, lead pipework and PAT testing.

The output tells you where you stand across 11 compliance areas and what to fix first. No login, no upfront contact details for the diagnostic itself. If you want the detailed action list and a follow-up from Angela in Bothwell, you can leave your email at the end.

Take the Compliance Check: propertyangels.uk/compliance-check/

Sources

Every claim in this article traces to a Gold or Silver source per the Property Angels source standard. Source URLs inlined per section.

Statutes and regulations

gov.scot guidance

Practice guidance

Tax and finance

Surveys and data

Compiled May 2026 by Property Angels, Bothwell. Authoritative for the publication date — Scottish regulation moves, and this article will be revised on commencement of the Investigation and Commencement of Repair Regulations (6 October 2026) and again on the first local-authority rent-condition reports (31 May 2027). For a 2-minute personal diagnostic of where you stand against everything above, the Compliance Check is at https://www.propertyangels.uk/compliance-check/.

Publication precondition: This article corrects the EPC D-by-2025 myth, but the live Compliance Check quiz currently restates that myth in Q3's subtitle and option-descriptions (assets/static/quiz-compliance.js lines 89, 101, 107). Steven must fix the quiz copy before this article ships, otherwise readers clicking through hit a contradiction.

r2 revision (2026-05-29): replaced accusatory H1 with neutral framing, rotated 4 "Are you compliant?" closes to vary verbs, added operational what-this-means-in-practice for lead-pipe duty, dropped internal-process standfirst, split 28-word sentence, replaced banned "cohort", decoded Section 24 on first use, softened "assume coming next year", added watch-this-space caveat to misconception 4, added overwhelm transition before CTA pivot, split conflated 71%/87% citations to FOI 202500481827 vs SAL, anchored 350/month claim to "since May 2024", separated Cost of Living Act 2022 cap (expired 1 Apr 2024) from SSI 2024/89 transitional taper (to 31 Mar 2025), added publishing-precondition note on the live-site Q3 quiz subtitle bug.

r3 revision (2026-05-29): added SSI 2026/173 citation to the Awaab's Law introductory paragraph (parity with Pillar 4 and YT Video 5; updated sources block from "in draft" to the SSI number with verify-on-commencement note). Added commercial COI disclosure paragraph after the overwhelm-acknowledgement / Compliance Check pivot — PA earns management fees on flats that stay let with us, nothing on clean compliance bills landlords carry themselves; the Compliance Check could land a landlord with PA as a managed client OR send them back to self-managing with the action list; both are valid outcomes. Brings Pillar 1 to parity with Pillar 3's procedural COI register and Pillar 4's first-person sharper one.

r3.1 revision (2026-05-29): cross-cutting fact-check supplementary correction. Replaced fabricated source name "SAL Annual Landlord Confidence Index 2025" at line 51 (body) and line 183 (sources block) with the corpus-canonical "SAL Portfolio Survey 2025" (same URL, same 87%-aged-50+ data point). The Confidence Index name appeared nowhere else in the source-of-truth files or the wider corpus; the canonical name is SAL Landlord Portfolio and Investment Survey 2025. Consolidated the two SAL bullets in the sources block into one entry since both pointed at the same publication and URL.