In these Regulations—

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

• “application” means an application under section 22(1) or (1A) of the Act2;

• “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.

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.

An officer of the panel appointed in accordance with Schedule 4 to the Rent (Scotland) Act 19843 may send a formal communication on behalf of the panel or the committee.

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.

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)4;

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