The Private Rented Housing Panel (Tenant and Third Party Applications) (Scotland) Regulations 2015

PART 1 Preliminary

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Private Rented Housing Panel (Tenant and Third Party Applications) (Scotland) Regulations 2015 and come into force on 1st December 2015.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the Act” means the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006;

“application” means an application under section 22(1) or (1A) of the Act(1);

“committee” means a private rented housing committee;

“the landlord’s duty” means the duty imposed by section 14(1) of the Act;

“panel” means the private rented housing panel;

“president” means the president of the panel;

“proceedings” means the proceedings in relation to the making of a decision under section 23(1), 24(1), 25(1) or 26(1) of, or paragraph 7(2) or (3) of schedule 2 to, the Act (including any preliminary issue);

“representative” means a representative under regulation 6; and

“working day” has the same meaning as in section 187 of the Act.

(2) In these Regulations where any formal communication requires to be served upon the parties it shall be deemed to have been served on a party if it is served on a person who is acting as the representative of that party.

(3) An officer of the panel appointed in accordance with Schedule 4 to the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984(2) may send a formal communication on behalf of the panel or the committee.

(4) Any requirement in these Regulations for a document to be signed by a person is satisfied, in the case of a document which is transmitted by electronic communication in accordance with these Regulations, by electronic signature of the person who is required to sign the document.

(5) For the purposes of paragraph (4)—

“electronic communication” has the meaning given to it by section 15 of the Electronic Communications Act 2000 (general interpretation)(3);

“electronic signature” has the same meaning as in section 7 of that Act.

The overriding objective

3.—(1) The overriding objective of these Regulations is to enable the president, panel and the committee to deal with the proceedings justly.

(2) Dealing with the proceedings justly includes—

(a) dealing with the proceedings in ways which are proportionate to the complexity of the issues and to the resources of the parties;

(b) seeking informality and flexibility in the proceedings;

(c) ensuring, so far as practicable, that the parties are on an equal footing procedurally and are able to participate fully in the proceedings, including assisting any party in the presentation of the party’s case without advocating the course they should take;

(d) using the special expertise of the panel and the committee effectively; and

(e) avoiding delay, so far as compatible with the proper consideration of the issues.

Application of the overriding objective

4.—(1) The president and the committee must seek to give effect to the overriding objective when exercising any power under these Regulations and interpreting any regulation.

(2) In particular, the president and the committee must manage the proceedings in accordance with the overriding objective.

(3) The parties must assist the panel or the committee to further the overriding objective.

(1)

Subsection (1A) of section 22 is inserted by section 25(1) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014.

(2)

1984 c.58.

(3)

2000 c.7. Section 15(1) was amended by paragraph 158 of Schedule 17 to the Communications Act 2003 (c.21).