The prevailing letting vehicle in the Scottish private rented sector – the private residential tenancy under the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 – does not allow for the creation of fixed-term tenancies. This means that in any situation where a private landlord seeks possession of a let property from a residential tenant who wishes to stay in their home, a legal action must be raised at the relevant tribunal. Separately, the law was recently changed to ensure all private sector evictions have to be considered by that tribunal for reasonableness. This has implications for the workload of the tribunal: evictions represent more than half of the current case load of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber): being 2687 of the 5078 cases it heard in its most recent reporting year. The sheer volume of cases has to be considered alongside the recent changes around reasonableness, and this is before we consider the impending changes to the law around delaying evictions that are expected in the new Housing (Scotland) Bill, not to mention the evolving human rights landscape which has implications for landlords and tenants. It is accordingly an appropriate juncture for detailed study around this topic.

This project would allow a student to engage in PhD research anchored around private sector evictions in Scotland, but there would be some scope for the student to develop their thesis in line with their own interests (e.g. alongside human rights law, or fairness, or around the nexus of evictions and homelessness). Malcolm Combe, an experienced teacher of housing law and a subject specialist (and co-author the 4th edition of Residential Tenancies: Private and Social Renting in Scotland (with Peter Robson)), would lead the supervisory team, with input from another appropriate second supervisor. One potential second supervisor is Professor Simon Halliday, a former Housing Advisor who was the co-author of an earlier edition of Residential Tenancies.