Housing (Scotland) Act 1987

66BF1Abatement of purchase price on landlord’s failure after contract of sale.S

(1)Where the landlord has failed and continues to fail to deliver a good and marketable title to the tenant in accordance with the contract of sale, the tenant may at any time serve on the landlord a notice (the “initial notice of delay”) setting out the landlord’s failure and specifying—

(a)the most recent action of which the tenant is aware which has been taken by the landlord in fulfilment of his duties under this Part;

(b)a period (the “response period”), of not less than one month beginning on the date of service of the notice, within which the service by the landlord of a counter notice under subsection (2) will have the effect of cancelling the initial notice of delay.

(2)If there is no action under this Part which, at the beginning of the response period it was for the landlord to take in order to grant a good and marketable title to the tenant in implementation of the contract of sale, the landlord may serve on the tenant a counter notice either during or after the response period.

(3)At any time when—

(a)the response period specified in the initial notice of delay has expired; and

(b)the landlord has not served a counter notice under subsection (2),

the tenant may serve on the landlord a notice (the “operative notice of delay”) that this subsection shall apply to the price fixed under section 62; and thereupon the price fixed under section 62 shall be reduced by the amount of rent paid by the tenant during the period commencing with the date of service of the operative notice of delay and ending with whichever is the earlier of the following dates—

(i)the date of service by the landlord of a counter notice; or

(ii)the date of delivery by the landlord of a good and marketable title in implementation of the contract of sale.

(4)Where the landlord has served a counter notice under subsection (2) the tenant (together with any joint purchaser) may, by serving on the clerk to the Lands Tribunal a copy of the initial notice of delay and of the landlord’s counter notice together with a request for the matter to be so referred, refer the matter to the Tribunal for its consideration under subsection (5).

(5)Where the matter has been so referred to the Lands Tribunal it shall consider whether or not in its opinion action which would have enabled a good and marketable title to be delivered in implementation of the contract of sale could have been taken by the landlord and shall find accordingly.

(6)Where the Lands Tribunal finds that action could have been taken by the landlord the tenant shall be entitled to serve an operative notice of delay as if the landlord had not served a counter notice and in that event the commencement date for the purposes of subsection (3) shall be the date on which an operative notice of delay could first have been served if no counter notice had been served.