Scotland changes court rules for domestic abuse housing cases
Legal rule changes often look dry on the page, but this one reaches into a very real question: after domestic abuse, who gets to stay safely in the home? That is why this new Scottish court update matters beyond lawyers and court staff. According to the Scottish Statutory Instruments text, the Court of Session made a new Act of Sederunt on 3 September 2026. It was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 4 September 2026, signed in Edinburgh by Lord President Paul Cullen, and comes into force on 5 October 2026.
If you are not used to court language, an Act of Sederunt is simply a set of procedural rules made by Scotland’s top civil court. It does not rewrite the whole law on domestic abuse or housing, but it does decide how cases are presented in the sheriff court and what official forms have to be used. **What this means:** the paperwork is not a side issue. In housing cases, the form tells the court what kind of order is being asked for, the legal ground being relied on, and how the final decision is recorded.
This particular change updates the Summary Cause Rules 2002 because of section 22 of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021. In plain English, the court rules are being brought into line with a law that created new ways to deal with domestic abuse in rented homes. That matters because legal rights on paper do not work well if courts do not yet have the right process to apply them. A rule change like this is the step that turns a law passed by Parliament into something people can actually use in court.
One new form covers a case where the abusive person is the sole tenant. In that situation, a landlord can ask the court for recovery of possession on the ground that the tenant has behaved abusively towards a partner or former partner. The note attached to the instrument says this is to allow the landlord to enter into a new tenancy with the partner or ex-partner who is the victim of that abusive behaviour. **Why that matters:** the aim is to avoid a result where the victim is the one pushed out of the home while the abusive tenant keeps the tenancy.
A second new form covers a different but common problem: joint tenancies. Where both people are joint tenants in a Scottish secure tenancy, the landlord can apply for an order ending the abusive tenant’s interest in that tenancy if that tenant has behaved abusively towards a partner or ex-partner. That phrase, ‘terminating a joint tenant’s interest’, can sound technical. In everyday terms, it means the court can be asked to remove one person’s legal stake in the tenancy rather than treating the home as an all-or-nothing arrangement. For many readers, that is the clearest sign of what these rules are trying to do: separate the abuser from the housing right, instead of automatically separating the victim from the home.
The instrument also adds a new form of extract decree for these cases. An extract decree is the official court document that records and gives effect to what the court has ordered, so creating a dedicated form helps make sure these cases are processed in the right way once a decision has been made. On the rulebook side, the amendment inserts new Forms 3za and 3zb into Appendix 1 of the Summary Cause Rules 2002, and a new Form 28l for the extract decree. Those labels may look minor, but they matter because court systems run on precision. If the right form does not exist, the right remedy is much harder to use.
It is worth being careful about what this change does and does not do. It does not say that every domestic abuse case will end the same way, and it does not create an automatic outcome. What it does is give landlords and sheriff courts a clearer route in cases where abusive behaviour by a tenant is the legal ground being relied on. For teachers, students, support workers and tenants, the bigger lesson is a useful one. Sometimes a law changes lives not through a dramatic headline, but through the quiet detail of court procedure. From 5 October 2026, Scotland’s housing and court rules will be better fitted to the reality that safety at home should not depend on an abuser holding the tenancy.