The Scottish Housing Regulator has written to all social landlords to highlight the importance of meeting their duties to keep tenants and residents safe.

The Regulator’s letter comes after it identified that some of the registered social landlords it had been engaging with had been unable to show they met the required duties. This included responsibilities around the management of asbestos and electrical safety.

It also found that the governing bodies of these landlords did not seek or get the necessary assurance that their organisation was meeting its legal duties on tenant and resident safety.

The Regulator requires landlords to assure themselves that they are complying with all relevant duties around the safety of tenants’ homes.

Ian Brennan, Director of Regulation, said: “Social landlords must ensure they meet all duties on tenant and resident safety and that they obtain the necessary assurances about their compliance. They must ensure that they are taking prompt action to address any non-compliance.

“We will be talking to landlords on how they are obtaining assurance in this area as part of our follow up work on the Annual Assurance Statements.”

In a separate move the regulator also reminded landlords of the need to keep rents affordable for their tenants.

Speaking at a Tenant Information Service event on rent setting and affordability, the Regulator’s Chief Executive, Michael Cameron said:

“It’s important that landlords demonstrate to their tenants that their rents will remain affordable and that they are having effective dialogue with their tenants on rent levels and increases.

“Landlords should be asking themselves whether they are doing everything possible to be efficient and drive costs from their business before passing costs on to tenants.”

By Patrick Mooney, Editor