The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
NTS tenants told to leave their home
Acouple face being evicted from their Dunkeld home of 18 years by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).
Chris Claydon has lived in the building at The Cross for 18 years, with her partner Scott Pringle Trotter moving in around 2015.
The couple, who run an online antique business, told The Courier: “We’re set to lose our home, our business and our community of 30 years.
“It’s going to be a terrible loss if we have to move out of our home.”
With the price of rentals in Dunkeld far exceeding what they currently pay, the couple believe they will have no choice but to leave the area.
“There’s nothing we could afford here,” said Chris.
“There’s a shortage of council properties, there’s a shortage of any affordable housing now and I think that’s what’s particularly galling.”
The couple were issued a no-fault eviction notice in May and were told the property needed essential structural repairs.
The couple asked NTS if they could be temporarily rehoused while the works were being carried out, but their request was refused.
There is nothing in the structural engineer report, seen by The Courier, to suggest they could not safely move back into their home after the works had been carried out.
Scott said: “I thought doing structural repairs to a house was part of a landlord’s few obligations, so they should be meeting that instead of evicting us.
“But when we got in a conversation with them, we said, we could put ourselves up somewhere and then come back to our home. “But they said no to that. “They just seemed determined to terminate our tenancy.”
The couple claim to have paid more than £96,000 in rent over the 18 years.
Chris, who also sits on the community council and children’s panel, says she has never missed a payment and has kept the flat in perfect condition.
However, because they are on a Short-Term Tenancies agreement, the landlord can evict them without reason.
In 2019, concerned with rising rent prices, Chris and other Dunkeld NTS tenants approached the charity to protect their living situation.
The group asked to be brought on to the newer Private Residential Tenancy agreements, which were introduced by the Scottish Government in 2017, that would help protect them from no-fault evictions.
This request was ultimately refused by the NTS.
In a letter sent to tenants in 2019 and seen by The Courier, NTS operations manager Christopher Cassels, wrote: “The Trust will not be converting any existing Short Assured Tenancies to the Private Residential Tenancy as it is not current policy and there is no legal requirement.”