Coronavirus: Evictions to be banned for six months

Evictions from the private and social rented sector will be banned for six months under emergency coronavirus legislation.

The move was confirmed by communities secretary Aileen Campbell in the Scottish Parliament, as she said “nobody, as a result of the ability to cope with this pandemic, should lose their house”.

Ms Campbell had been responding to a question posed by Scottish Labour MSP Pauline McNeill on Tuesday, who had asked for a guarantee that legislation would be in place to ensure no evictions across all housing tenancies during the crisis.

“There should be no eviction as a result of Covid,” Ms Campbell said.

“Our emergency legislation will have provisions to ensure there can be no evictions from the private rented sector or social rented sector for six months.

“Aside from the legislation, I’ve also had assurances from the SFHA (Scottish Federation of Housing Associations) that they will not and their members will not evict anyone at all during this time but of course we’re going to take forward the legislative packages.”

Ms Campbell assured the Scottish Government was “looking at the number of causes for notice of eviction and to extend the majority of them for the six months”.

She hoped this would “essentially give effect to the fact that we do not want to see anyone lose their house over the head of this pandemic we’re trying to cope with.”