Bullet Point Updates
July 2017 – Private tenancies – Old and New
The Bullet Point Updates for April 2016 and May 2016 gave an outline of the radical re-vamp of private residential tenancies under the Private Housing (Tenancies)(Scotland) Act 2016) (“the new Act”) which is expected to have effect from December this year. The...
June 2017 – Rectifying A Wayward Will
Rectifying contracts and other deeds Since 1985 there have been statutory provisions in place so that where: a contractual document fails to express accurately the common intention of the parties when the agreement was made; or a document intended, for example, to...
May 2017 – “Fixing a blip with ADS” – The Additional Dwelling Supplement & Second Homes
Something was said about Additional Dwelling Supplement in Bullet Point Update 1 of 2016 (“Second homes & Land and Buildings Transaction Tax”). This note focuses exclusively on a particular forthcoming change to the rules about ADS concerning cases where a...
April 2017 – “April is the cruellest month” – Burial and Cremation (Scotland ) Act 2016
The quote from T S Eliot’s The Wasteland is hardly cheerful but seems an apt title for the subject matter of this month’s update: burial and cremation. The subject is not entirely topical except that this month is the anniversary of the passing of the Burial and...
March 2017 – Letting Agents Register & Code of Practice
Section 29 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 requires the setting up of a mandatory register of letting agents and section 43 gave Scottish Ministers power to set out a code of practice about letting agency work. The Letting Agent Registration (Scotland) Regulations...
February 2017 – In terrorem “Penalty clauses” in contracts – the Scottish Law Commission review
The Scottish Law Commission is currently reviewing the law on “penalty clauses” in contracts. Their consultation exercise closes at the end of this month. It’s worth outlining what “penalty clauses” are; the current state of the law; and what the Scottish Law...
January 2017 – Charities becoming SCIOs (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Association)
There are over 24,000 charities registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (“OSCR”). These come in all shapes and sizes and are constituted in various forms. In the main, charities will be set up in the form of a “trust” or an “unincorporated...
December 2016 – New residential tenancy forms from 1 December 2016
(in particular: new Forms AT5 for short assured tenancies; AT6 for assured tenancies; and Tenant Information Packs) This Note gives some background to the new forms of AT5, AT6 and Tenant Information Packs which must be used for “short assured” and “assured” private...
November 2016 – Sorry – Not the Hardest Word
The Apologies (Scotland) Act 2016 (“the Act”) will be fully in force by the middle of next month (just in time for Christmas). What is the Act for? The Parliamentary Policy Memorandum relating to the Act sets out the policy aims of the Act as follows (with...
October 2016 – Executor Appointment Changes
Introduction Something was said about the new Succession (Scotland) Act 2016 in the Bullet Point Updates for February and March this year. This update focuses on one particular aspect of the changes concerning the procedures for the executors appointed under a Will...
September 2016 – New Regulations Non-domestic Energy Performance
Introduction The Assessment of Energy Performance of Non-domestic Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2016 (“the Regulations”) came into force on the 1st of this month. The explanatory note published as part and parcel of the Regulations gives a flavour of their scope:...
August 2016 – Coupledom Revisited
Background In Scotland we have the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977, the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014. The 1977 Act concerns marriage between opposite sex couples and the 2004 Act concerns civil partnerships between...
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