Mid-market rent

Each housing provider can set their own eligibility requirements. Requirements vary between providers. 

Providers usually require tenants to:

• be employed

• have a low to moderate household income

Each provider decides their own upper and lower income requirements. These requirements often differ depending on the size of the household. 

The income of the whole household should be considered. Income from benefits should be included as income.

If a client is refused a mid-market rent tenancy because part of their income is from benefits, they should seek specialist advice on benefit discrimination from the Equality Advisory Support Service. 

The council or housing association providing the property is the landlord. As a registered social landlord, they must be registered with the Scottish Housing Regulator.

The landlord must provide a written tenancy agreement to the tenant.

A mid-market rent tenancy will be a private residential tenancy (PRT). 

If the tenant moved in before 1 December 2017 it will either be an assured tenancy or a short assured tenancy.

Tenants can be required to pay a security deposit in advance of moving into the property. The deposit must be protected in an approved deposit protection scheme. See the section on deposits. 

The landlord is responsible for ensuring the property meets the repairing standard. [1] See the section on the repairing standard. 

If mid-market tenants are threatened with eviction, see the section on eviction. 

If mid-market tenants want to raise a complaint against their landlord they can use the registered social landlord's 2 stage complaints process. Tenants should request a copy of the complaints procedure from the social landlord. 

Where the client’s complaint is not resolved by the internal complaints procedure, they may escalate their complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

Since mid-market tenants usually have private residential tenancies, they have the right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber).

Tenants can use the tribunal to help resolve disputes with their landlord. See our advice on tribunal applications.