Bill promises to protect tenants

The Scottish Executive has backed the bill

A bill to abolish landlords' rights to demand large payments from unsuspecting tenants has passed its first stage in the Scottish Parliament.

The legislation has been brought forward by a Scottish National Party MSP in an effort to close a legal loophole.

The general principles of the members' bill by Adam Ingram won cross-party support and were agreed without going to a recorded vote.

Tenants will be protected by the bill

The Leasehold Casualties (Scotland) Bill has the backing of the Scottish Executive, and Mr Ingram hopes it will become law by Easter.

The loophole allowed the so-called Raider of the Lost Titles, Brian Hamilton, to charge unsuspecting tenants thousands of pounds.

In the mid 1990s, Mr Hamilton gained notoriety by buying up title deeds and making money out of long forgotten clauses.

These allowed him - and other landlords across Scotland - to charge tenants anything from a few pounds to thousands of pounds in leasehold casualty payments.

Bill 'long overdue'

The House of Commons has never had time to get round to addressing this problem.

However, the Scottish Parliament looks set to lead the way through Mr Ingram's efforts to abolish the charges.

Opening the debate on Wednesday, he told MSPs: "This Bill is long overdue and will remove an antiquated element from Scots property law which has recently been used to oppressive effect in advance of the more general reform of the law relating to long residential leases."

He said recent exploitation of the law by certain landlords had caused a great deal of distress to tenants in specific parts of Scotland.

New rights

In a separate move, the UK Government is proposing a new regime for leaseholders, but that legislation was not included in the Homes Bill which formed part of the Queen's Speech last year.

The proposed reforms would give leaseholders new rights to take over the management of their buildings without paying compensation to the landlord.

It would also become easier for leaseholders to buy the freehold of their building, give them the right to challenge unfair service charges and give greater protection for leaseholders threatened with eviction.

The proposals, which were set out in a draft bill for consultation last year, also included a new form of property ownership called Commonhold.

Commonhold is designed to give people who live in flats the same security as other homeowners.