Housing (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1972

Section 37.

SCHEDULE 6 Restriction on Rent Increases

Restriction on rent increases after first registration

1 Where a rent for a dwelling-house which is subject to a regulated tenancy is registered under Part IV of the Act of 1971 and the registration is the first registration to take effect after the tenancy has become a regulated tenancy by virtue of section 34 of this Act, then if the rent payable under the tenancy for any statutory period beginning during the period of delay imposed by paragraph 2 of this Schedule is less than the rent so registered, it shall not be increased by a notice of increase under section 21(2)(b) of the Act of 1971 except to the extent (if any) permitted under the following provisions of this Schedule ; and any such notice which purports to increase it further shall have effect to increase it to the extent so permitted but no further.

Period of delay

2 There shall be a period of delay with respect to any rent registered as mentioned in paragraph 1 of this Schedule which shall be a period of two years beginning with the date of registration.

Permitted increase

3 (1) Subject to paragraph 3(1)(c) of Part III of the Schedule to the [1971 c. 40.] Fire Precautions Act 1971, the rent may be increased to the aggregate of the following—

(a) the amount of the previous limit calculated in accordance with paragraph 4 of this Schedule ; and

(b) the appropriate proportion of the difference between the registered rent and the amount specified in paragraph (a) above.

(2) The appropriate proportion mentioned in sub-paragraph (1)(b) of this paragraph shall be ascertained for any rental period in accordance with the following Table, in which the year of the period of delay in which the rental period begins is shown in the first column and the appropriate proportion in the second column.

TABLE

Year of period of delay	Appropriate proportion
first year	one-third
second year	two-thirds

(3) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this paragraph, the amount to which the rent may be increased for any rental period shall not in any case be less than 50p a week above the following, that is to say—

(a) if the rental period begins in the first year of the period of delay, the amount specified in sub-paragraph (1)(a) of this paragraph ;

(b) if the rental period begins in the second year of the period of delay, the amount to which the rent could be increased for a rental period beginning in the previous year;

but nothing in this paragraph shall be taken to enable the rent to be increased above the amount registered.

Previous limit

4 (1) For the purposes of this Schedule the previous limit of a rent shall be taken to be, subject to sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph, the amount which at the date of registration was recoverable by way of the rent or would have been so recoverable if all notices of increase authorised by the Act of 1971 or by section 36(2) of this Act had been served.

(2) Where the rent includes an amount payable in respect of rates, the amount so payable, ascertained in accordance with Schedule 4 to the Act of 1971, shall be deducted from the amount specified in sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph in calculating the previous limit of the rent.

Restriction on rent increases in cases of further registration during period of delay

5 (1) Where a rent (in this paragraph referred to as the first rent) for a dwelling-house which is subject to a regulated tenancy has been registered as mentioned in paragraph 1 of this Schedule and, in any year of the period of delay imposed by paragraph 2 of this Schedule, a new rent for the dwelling-house is registered under Part IV of the Act of 1971, then, if the new rent exceeds the rent for the time being recoverable under the regulated tenancy, the following provisions of this paragraph shall apply and the foregoing provisions of this Schedule shall not apply.

(2) The rent for any statutory period beginning before the end of the period of delay shall not be increased by a notice of increase under section 21(2)(b) of the Act of 1971 except to the extent permitted by the following provisions of this paragraph ; and any such notice which purports to increase it further shall have effect to increase it to the extent so permitted but no further.

(3) If the new rent is less than the first rent, the rent payable under the regulated tenancy may be increased (up to the amount registered) to the same extent as if the first rent had remained registered.

(4) If the new rent exceeds the first rent, the rent payable for any statutory period beginning after the date of registration may be increased by the difference between the first rent and the new rent, but, apart from that increase, the amount to which the rent may be increased thereafter (up to the new rent) is to be determined as if the first rent had remained registered.

Successive tenancies

6 Where a rent for a dwelling-house which is subject to a regulated tenancy is registered as mentioned in paragraph 1 of this Schedule and, during the period of delay imposed by paragraph 2 of this Schedule with respect to the rent, the tenant, or any person who might succeed him as a statutory tenant, becomes the tenant under a new regulated tenancy of the dwelling-house—

(a) the rent limit for any contractual period of the new regulated tenancy beginning during that period of delay shall be the amount to which, if the first-mentioned tenancy had continued, the rent payable thereunder could have been increased in accordance with this Schedule for a statutory period beginning at the same time, and in relation to such a contractual period the reference in section 43(3)(a) of the Act of 1971 to section 19(2) of that Act shall be construed as a reference to this paragraph ; and

(b) in relation to any statutory period of the new tenancy beginning during that period of delay the provisions of this Schedule shall have effect as if it were a statutory period of the first mentioned tenancy.

7 Where a controlled tenancy of a dwelling-house becomes a regulated tenancy by virtue of section 34 of this Act, and the tenant, or any person who might succeed him as a statutory tenant, becomes the tenant under a new regulated tenancy of the dwelling-house, then, if during the continuance of the new regulated tenancy a rent for the dwelling-house is registered under Part IV of the Act of 1971 and the registration would be such a registration as is mentioned in paragraph 1 above had the first mentioned regulated tenancy continued, the provisions of this Schedule shall apply as if it had continued and in particular paragraph 6 above shall, subject to paragraph 9 below, apply with the necessary modifications.

Rent Agreements

8 Where, after a controlled tenancy of a dwelling-house becomes a regulated tenancy by virtue of section 34 of this Act, an agreement increasing the rent under the tenancy (but without creating a new regulated tenancy) takes effect, whether before or after the beginning of the period of delay imposed by paragraph 2 of this Schedule, then, subject to paragraph 9 below,—

(a) the rent limit for any contractual period of the regulated tenancy beginning during that period of delay shall be the amount to which, if the agreement had not been made, the rent payable under the tenancy could have been increased in accordance with this Schedule for a statutory period beginning at the same time, and, in relation to such a contractual period, the reference in section 43(3)(a) of the Act of 1971 to section 19(2) of that Act shall be construed as a reference to this paragraph ; and

(b) in relation to any statutory period of the regulated tenancy, beginning during that period of delay, the provisions of this Schedule shall have effect as if the agreement had not been made.

9 If, in the period between the time when the controlled tenancy of a dwelling-house becomes a regulated tenancy by virtue of section 34 of this Act and the registration of such a rent as is mentioned in paragraph 1 of this Schedule, a rent agreement with a tenant having security of tenure takes effect as respects the dwelling-house and me provisions of sections 42 and 43 of this Act have been observed as respects the agreement, then the provisions of this Schedule shall apply as respects the period after the actual date when the rent was registered for the dwelling-house as if the date of registration had been the date on which the agreement took effect.

Supplemental

10 In ascertaining for the purposes of this Schedule whether there is any difference between amounts or what that difference is, such adjustments shall be made as may be necessary to take account of periods of different lengths ; and for that purpose a month shall be treated as one-twelfth and a week as one fifty-second of a year.

11 Where a registration takes effect from a date earlier than the date of registration, references in this Schedule to the date of registration shall nonetheless be references to the later date.

12 Where a rent determined by a rent assessment committee is registered in substitution for a rent determined by the rent officer, the foregoing provisions of this Schedule shall have effect as if only the rent determined by the rent assessment committee had been registered ; but the date of registration shall be deemed for the purpose of this Schedule (but not for the purposes of section 21(2)(b) of the Act of 1971) to be the date on which the rent determined by the rent officer was registered.

13 This Schedule shall not apply where a registration is also the first after the completion, during the existence of the regulated tenancy, of works towards the cost of which a grant was payable under Part II of the Act of 1968.