Setting up a private tenancy agreement

A tenancy agreement is a legal contract between you and your tenant. 

It explains all the terms of the tenancy, including rules about:

• rent
• repairs
• ending the tenancy 

If you do not give your tenant the right paperwork, a housing tribunal can order you to do so. 

If you’ll be renting the same property to 2 or more tenants you can set up: 

• a single joint tenancy agreement that they all sign 
• separate tenancy agreements with each tenant 

Creating a tenancy agreement 

You must get the tenant to sign a tenancy agreement. 

You must give your tenant both:

• a signed copy of the tenancy agreement
• supporting documentation to explain their legal rights 

You must do this by the end of the first day that the tenancy starts. 

Type of tenancy agreement 

In most cases, you must give a new tenant a private residential tenancy agreement when: 

• the property is the tenants main or only home 
• you do not live in the property with them 

There is no fixed length for private residential tenancies. The tenancy continues indefinitely until you or the tenant end it. 

You cannot give a tenant an assured or a short assured tenancy for a new tenancy. These are older tenancy types that can no longer be created in Scotland. 

The tenancy documents you can use 

You can either give the tenant: 

• the model tenancy agreement that comes with easy read notes
• your own tenancy agreement and a copy of the supporting notes

The easy read notes or supporting notes set out the tenant's legal rights. 

Get the documents to create a model private residential tenancy agreement. 

If you decide to create your own tenancy agreement, you must make sure it contains everything that it should under the law. 

If you give your tenant the wrong documents or include unfair terms 

Your tenant can take you to the First-Tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber). They can only do this during their tenancy. 

The tribunal can order you to: 

• give your tenant the right tenancy agreement and paperwork 
• remove any unfair terms you included 
• pay your tenant compensation of up to 6 months’ rent 

Before your tenant can take you to the trinubal, they must write to you explaining why. 

When you get the letter, you’ll have 28 days to give your tenant the right documents. If you do not do this, they can apply to the tribunal. 

Creating a joint tenancy agreement 

If you’re creating one tenancy agreement for all tenants sharing the property, this makes them joint tenants. 

All joint tenants are equally responsible for the rent. If one tenant cannot pay the rent, you can ask the other tenants to pay. 

Joint tenants must end the tenancy together. If only one tenant wants to move out, they cannot give notice alone. 

Your tenants will not be joint tenants if you create separate tenancy agreements for each one. 

Agree how you’ll contact each other 

As part of the tenancy agreement, you should agree how you’ll contact each other. This can either be by: 

• agreed email address 
• paper letter, delivered in person, or by recorded delivery