Scottish Ministers have made the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber (Procedure) Amendment Regulations 2026, recorded as S.S.I. 2026/288. According to the text published on legislation.gov.uk, the instrument was made on 22 October 2026, laid before the Scottish Parliament on 26 October 2026, and will come into force on 1 April 2027. The instrument is signed by Shirley-Anne Somerville at St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh. The Regulations amend the 2017 procedure rules for the Housing and Property Chamber so that the tribunal can deal with a new category of housing enforcement case created by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025. The change is procedural rather than substantive: it does not create the information-gathering power itself, but sets out how applications are to be brought when that power is not complied with.
The explanatory note states that section 14 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 allows local authorities and the Scottish Ministers to seek information from a landlord about the tenancy of a house included in the landlord’s entry in the landlord register. Sections 16 and 17 of that Act then create tribunal-facing consequences where the information holder either fails to provide the information without reasonable excuse, or provides information that they must have known to be false in a material way. This instrument closes the procedural gap between those powers and tribunal enforcement. In practical terms, it gives public authorities a clear route into the First-tier Tribunal when a statutory request for tenancy-related information is ignored or answered inaccurately.
At the front end, regulation 2(2) updates regulation 2 of the 2017 principal Regulations so that the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 is added to the list of enactments that confer functions on the Housing and Property Chamber. Regulation 2(3)(a) then adds a definition of “the 2025 Act” to rule 1(2) of the tribunal rules. The main operational change is regulation 2(3)(b), which inserts a new Part 5 after rule 120. New rule 121 states that this Part applies to applications made by a local authority or by the Scottish Ministers under section 16(3) or 17(3) of the 2025 Act. New rule 122 applies the general rules in Part 1, but only with stated modifications, including a change to rule 5(1) so that applications must follow the form set out in new rule 123.
The Regulations are tightly drawn on who may apply and on what grounds. The applicant, described in new rule 123 as the “requester”, must be either a local authority or the Scottish Ministers. The person against whom the case is brought is the “information holder”, a term linked in the explanatory note to information about the tenancy of a house in the landlord register. Two separate failures can trigger an application. The first is an alleged failure to provide some or all of the requested information without reasonable excuse under section 16(3). The second is an allegation that the information holder supplied information they must have known to be false in a material way under section 17(3). New rule 123(2) is important in practice because it allows both issues to be raised in a single application where both are said to have occurred.
New rule 123 also sets a detailed filing standard. An application must identify the requester, any representative, the information holder, any landlord registration number, and the address of the house to which the information request relates. It must also specify that a request under section 14(1) or 14(2) of the 2025 Act was issued, record when that request was received, and explain the factual basis for the alleged breach. The documentary requirements are equally exact. The application must include the original request for information, any later correspondence about that request, and the notice previously served under section 16(2) or 17(2). Where the application relies on section 17(3), the requester must also lodge evidence that materially false information was provided. The instrument therefore requires a documented record before the case reaches the tribunal.
The amendments also deal with case handling once an application is lodged. Under new rule 124, the parties to be notified are the person making the application and the person who has been served with the earlier statutory notice. New rule 125 adds a further notification step where rule 8 does not apply: applications brought by a local authority must be notified to the Scottish Ministers, and applications brought by the Scottish Ministers must be notified to the relevant local authority. Rule 122 also adjusts the existing decision and recall provisions. As the explanatory note records, the modification to rule 26(6) allows the First-tier Tribunal to provide a statement of reasons in these cases, while the change to rule 30(1) brings Part 5 within the normal recall mechanism. The new jurisdiction is therefore being folded into the Chamber’s existing procedure rather than treated as a separate process.
For landlords and their advisers, the real significance is timing and process. From 1 April 2027, an alleged failure to answer a valid statutory request for information, or an allegation that materially false information was provided, may be pursued through a defined tribunal route supported by prescribed evidence and notification rules. That is likely to make enforcement action more administratively consistent across Scotland. For councils, the Scottish Government and housing compliance professionals, the instrument is a reminder that the effect of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 depends on procedure as well as policy design. The Regulations were made under schedule 9 to the Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014, and the preamble records that the Scottish Ministers consulted the President of Tribunals and others considered appropriate before making them. That gives the new Part 5 the footing required for these cases to begin reaching the tribunal in 2027.