Landlord Registration in Scotland: Fees, Sourced from gov.scot's Own FOI Release

Two gov.scot pages, two very different sets of numbers

Searching for the Scottish landlord registration fee turns up two official gov.scot sources that disagree — because one is far older than the other. The statutory guidance for local authorities, “Registration of Private Landlords: Guidance for Local Authorities” (published 9 October 2009), sets out the fee structure under three sets of regulations from 2005, 2006 and 2008, and states: “Each landlord and agent applying for registration should pay a principal fee of £55 to each local authority in which they apply and, in the case of landlords, a property fee of £11 for each property registered.” A late application fee of £110 also appears in that guidance. Those figures have since been superseded — the guidance page itself hasn't been updated to reflect it.

The more current official source is a Freedom of Information release, “Private landlord registration fees: FOI release”, published 24 February 2025 in response to a request for the annual fee history since the Landlord Register began. It confirms mandatory registration started in April 2006, and that the £55 / £11 / £110 figures above applied “between April 2006 and March 2019” — then gives the year-by-year table that follows.

The FOI-verified fee table, April 2019 to March 2025

The “multi-LA discounted principal” column is the fee payable per authority when a landlord registers with, or renews in, more than one local authority at the same time online — consistently half the ordinary principal fee for that year.

Fees rise every April

The FOI response is explicit about why the number keeps moving: “Following a public consultation, the fees for landlord registration are to increase each year in line with the Consumer Price Index.” That means the April 2025 – March 2026 fee, and every year after it, will be higher than the last row in the table above — but the FOI release we've read doesn't state what that next figure is, and we're not printing a guess. For the current year's exact principal and property fee, check landlordregistrationscotland.gov.uk or your local authority directly.

Discounts and exemptions in the fee structure

The 2009 guidance also sets out how the fee structure itself works — which categories exist and who qualifies for a discount — even though its own £55/£11/£110 figures are the older ones above. On that structure:

• Charities. Registered charities are exempt from both the principal fee and the property fee — a 100% discount — though they still have to register. A late fee can still apply if a charity fails to respond to two requests from the council.
• Joint owners. Where a property is jointly owned, one ‘lead’ owner is designated to pay the principal and property fees; the other joint owners are exempt from paying again for the same properties.
• HMO licence holders. A landlord who already holds an HMO licence in that local authority area is exempt from the principal and property fee for registration — unless the application also includes non-HMO properties, in which case a property fee is still due for those.
• Multi-authority discount. Applying to, or renewing in, more than one local authority at the same time online gets a 50% discount on the principal fee in each authority — reflected as the “multi-LA discounted principal” column above.
• Online discount. A 10% discount applies to online applications, except where no fee is due at all, or on the additional late-application fee.
• Late application fee. This only becomes payable once a local authority has issued two separate requests for a valid application and it still hasn't been made.

An agent fee also exists, payable by the landlord (not the agent) to cover the council's fit-and-proper check on an unregistered agent named in a landlord's application — the 2009 guidance states this fee too, at the same older £55 rate, with its own 50% discounts for agents applying across multiple authorities. As with the principal and property fee, treat that specific figure as the older one shown in the table above, not necessarily the current amount.

What the sources we hold don't tell us

Two things worth being upfront about. First, neither gov.scot page we've reviewed states how many years a registration lasts before it needs renewing — the guidance describes renewal discounts and mechanics, but not a fixed registration period, so we haven't printed one. Second, the exact principal and property fee for the 2025/26 or 2026/27 year isn't in the FOI table above, which stops at March 2025 — treat the £80.00 / £18.00 figures as the last confirmed year, not this year's fee, and check landlordregistrationscotland.gov.uk for the current amount.

Tax: registration fees are deductible

Landlord registration fees paid to a Scottish local authority are a normal cost of running your letting business, deductible from rental income in the year you pay them — see the full allowable expenses list and run your figures through the rental income tax calculator.

gov.scot: Private landlord registration fees, FOI/202500449184 (published 24 Feb 2025) · gov.scot: Registration of Private Landlords — Guidance for Local Authorities, Part 5: Fees and Discounts (published 9 Oct 2009), both read verbatim 5 Sep 2026. No principal or property fee figure for 2025/26 or 2026/27 is printed on this page — neither source we hold states one.