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Homelessness Etc (Scotland) Act 2003, Section 11

If you are a landlord or creditor you are now required to notify us when you start to take court action that could result in making someone homeless. By giving us this early warning you can help us to take action to prevent homelessness.

Section 11 of the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 comes into force on 1st April 2009.

The aim of this legislation is to ensure that we know in advance when a household is at risk of being evicted or having their home repossessed. Giving us this notification is a helpful trigger, allowing us to intervene at an early stage and hopefully prevent homelessness occurring. Where it is not possible for us to prevent homelessness we can still minimise the stress and trauma of losing a home and help the household to access alternative accommodation as quickly as possible.

This legislation is not intended to be a barrier to eviction. Instead it allows us to become involved and take suitable action which may prevent the household reaching housing crisis. In some cases it may be appropriate to resolve the current issues and allow the household to continue living in the current property. In other cases the most appropriate solution may be for the existing arrangements to come to a managed end and the household helped to find alternative accommodation.

This legislation applies to you if you are a landlord (either a private landlord or a registered social landlord) or a creditor (mortgage holder) who is raising court proceedings to either lawfully evict a tenant or to repossess a property. If this court action could result in making someone homeless you are obliged to send us specific information in a prescribed format detailing the action you are taking. This does not apply in cases where a tenancy ends routinely without taking legal action.

The information sent to us will depend on whether you are a landlord or a creditor. These documents detail exactly the information you need to send us:

You can find out more about the Section 11 legislation, and who it applies to, from the Scottish Government

You can email notification documents to us at:

section11@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

Or, if you prefer, you can print out the document and post it to us at:

Head of Housing
S11 Notifications
Housing & Social Work Service
Aberdeenshire Council
Woodhill House
Westburn Road
ABERDEEN
AB16 5GB

 

If you have any queries regarding this please contact us at:
section11@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

If, as a tenant or creditor, you do not know which local authority you should be contacting the Ordnance Survey provide a postcode search which can identify this for you.