If you own a property in Scotland, rent one out, are trying to sell one, or have seen reports that councils are being given the power to take over homes after they have stood empty for six months, the position in Scotland is straightforward: no such six-month power has been introduced here.
Scotland does not have Compulsory Sale Orders. It does not have Compulsory Lease Orders. Nor does it have the Empty Dwelling Management Order system that the UK Government has just announced it will strengthen in England.
The English announcement has nevertheless created an easy source of confusion because it concerns empty privately owned homes, local-authority intervention and a new six-month threshold. But the mechanism being changed in England is not a compulsory sale order, and it does not transfer ownership of a house to a council.
What England Has Actually Announced
On 27 September 2026, the UK Government announced reforms to England’s existing Empty Dwelling Management Order system, normally known as EDMOs.
EDMOs are not new. They were created under the Housing Act 2004 and allow English councils, after following the statutory procedure, to take over the management of qualifying privately owned homes that have been left empty.
The principal change announced this week is the qualifying period. At present, a property must have been empty for two years before becoming eligible for an EDMO. The Government says that period will be reduced to six months.
It has also announced that evidential requirements involving matters such as anti-social behaviour and evidence of community support for intervention will be removed, making it easier for councils to apply to the Residential Property Tribunal.
The Government announcement does not say that ownership passes to the council. It specifically states that ownership remains with the property owner while the local authority takes over management and seeks to return the home to occupation. An EDMO can ultimately operate for up to seven years.
Nor should the announcement be read as meaning that every English home automatically becomes council-controlled on the day it has been empty for six months. The council still has to use the statutory EDMO procedure. The six-month period establishes eligibility for intervention rather than automatically transferring control.
The UK Government announcement also uses future language. It says the qualifying period “will” be reduced. It does not state that the six-month threshold came into force on 27 September.
Scotland Has No Equivalent EDMO System
None of that changes the law applying to an empty house in Scotland.
A Scottish property does not become liable to council takeover because it has stood empty for six months. There is no Scottish Empty Dwelling Management Order through which a council can assume management of a private home on the English model.
The principal compulsory property mechanism already available to Scottish councils is the Compulsory Purchase Order, or CPO.
A CPO is fundamentally different. Public authorities can use compulsory-purchase powers where there is a sufficiently strong public-interest case and the relevant statutory requirements are satisfied. A council can promote an order and ask Scottish Ministers to confirm it. If the acquisition proceeds, the authority can obtain ownership and compensation is payable to the owner and others with qualifying interests.
Scottish Government guidance makes clear that compulsory purchase is a significant interference with property rights and that the public benefit has to be balanced against the rights of those affected.
There is no general rule under which simply leaving a Scottish home vacant for six months, 12 months or another fixed period activates compulsory purchase.
What a Compulsory Sale Order Would Do
A Compulsory Sale Order would create a different mechanism again.
Rather than a council buying the property through compulsory purchase, the concept considered by the Scottish Government would allow a local authority, in defined circumstances, to require a property to be sold without the owner voluntarily choosing to sell it.
The idea has been discussed in Scotland for years, particularly as a possible way of dealing with persistently vacant or derelict buildings where attempts to secure voluntary action have failed.
But discussion of a power is not the same as having the power.
The Scottish Government included Compulsory Sale Orders and Compulsory Lease Orders in its consultation on compulsory-purchase reform, which ran from September to December 2025. When it published its conclusions in August 2026, it described those questions as exploratory and stated explicitly that neither mechanism currently exists.
Consultation Support Did Not Create a New Law
The consultation produced substantial support for the principle of compulsory sale among those who responded.
Eighty individuals and organisations answered at least one question in the compulsory sale and lease section. Among respondents answering whether local authorities should be able to instruct the sale of property without the owner’s permission, 69 per cent said yes and 31 per cent said no.
That figure is a measure of consultation respondents, not a Scottish public-opinion poll.
Support was particularly strong among organisational respondents. Vacant and derelict properties were repeatedly identified as circumstances in which such a power might be useful.
The same consultation also exposed the practical and legal questions that would have to be resolved. Respondents raised costs, council staffing and expertise, legal disputes, human-rights protections and the safeguards needed when the state intervenes in private property rights.
Seventy-two per cent of those answering another consultation question thought the procedure for a Compulsory Sale Order should be broadly equivalent to the procedure used for compulsory purchase. That created a further question for ministers: if compulsory sale required many of the same safeguards and procedures, would it actually be simpler, faster or cheaper than a reformed CPO system?
The Scottish Government Has Not Committed to Introducing It
The Scottish Government has decided to proceed with major reform of Scotland’s existing compulsory-purchase system during the current parliamentary term.
Its programme includes plans for a single Compulsory Purchase Act, changes intended to make approval faster and more certain, digital procedures, new forms of temporary possession and reform of compensation arrangements.
Compulsory Sale Orders have not been included as an agreed part of that legislative programme.
The distinction was made particularly clear at the Scottish Parliament this month.
Scottish Labour MSP Paul Sweeney asked when ministers planned to introduce legislation establishing Compulsory Sale Orders and whether such powers would appear in legislation during the current parliamentary session.
The Scottish Government replied on 16 September that it would continue examining whether compulsory-sale powers could provide advantages beyond a reformed compulsory-purchase system.
Another question referred to measures being taken while a statutory framework for Compulsory Sale Orders was being developed. The Government rejected that premise, stating that it had not committed to developing such a statutory framework.
That remains the Scottish position.
Scotland Can Already Use Compulsory Purchase for Empty Property
The absence of Compulsory Sale Orders does not mean councils have no compulsory powers concerning vacant or derelict buildings.
The Scottish Government says existing CPO powers can support projects ranging from major infrastructure and regeneration schemes to the refurbishment of individual empty homes and derelict properties.
It is also possible to use what are sometimes described as “back-to-back” CPO arrangements. A council can compulsorily acquire property where the intention is subsequently to dispose of it to a third-party developer that finances or carries out the work.
That existing route is one reason ministers are examining whether a separate compulsory-sale mechanism would add enough to justify creating another statutory system.
Glasgow City Council is currently piloting the use of CPO powers to acquire empty properties with a view to selling them as private-sector development opportunities. The Scottish Government says it intends to examine the lessons from that work while considering future reform.
Why the Six-Month Figure Can Be Misleading in Scotland
Six months does appear in Scotland’s official empty-property statistics, but it has a completely different function.
The latest Scottish Government figures show that 44,453 properties liable for Council Tax had been empty for more than six months in September 2025.
Of those, 32,337 had been empty for more than 12 months.
Those figures cover housing across all tenures, including owner-occupied, privately rented and social housing. They should not be interpreted as 44,453 abandoned privately owned homes or as properties that could automatically be subjected to compulsory action.
A property may be empty because of renovation, probate, structural problems, a pending sale or letting, difficulties in the local housing market, or many other circumstances.
The Scottish Government’s current Council Tax guidance also uses a different threshold. For that guidance, an empty home is one that has been empty for less than 12 months, while a long-term empty home is one that has been empty for 12 months or more.
Councils have discretion over Council Tax treatment of second and long-term empty homes and can use premiums as a housing-policy measure. That is a taxation power. It is not a power to take ownership or management of the property.
What This Means for a Property Owner in Scotland
The English announcement therefore does not create a new six-month deadline for Scottish property owners.
A home in Scotland does not become available for council seizure, compulsory sale, compulsory leasing or council management merely because it has been empty for six months.
A Scottish council may work with the owner through its empty-homes service. It may apply the Council Tax rules available to it. In a sufficiently justified case it may consider existing compulsory-purchase powers.
But there is presently no Scottish Compulsory Sale Order, no Compulsory Lease Order and no English-style Empty Dwelling Management Order.
England is changing an existing statutory management system. Scotland is reforming its existing compulsory-purchase system while continuing to examine whether compulsory sale would provide anything sufficiently different to justify introducing it.
For Scotland, six months is currently a useful point in the statistical measurement of empty properties. It is not the point at which a council gains the legal right to take one over.
Sources
New reforms to bring more long-term empty homes back into use — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 27 September 2026.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-reforms-to-bring-more-long-term-empty-homes-back-into-use–2
Compulsory Purchase Reform in Scotland: The Way Forward — Scottish Government, 26 August 2026.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/compulsory-purchase-reform-scotland-way-forward/
Compulsory sale and lease orders: consultation analysis report — Scottish Government, 26 August 2026.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/compulsory-sale-lease-orders-consultation-analysis-report/
Questions S7W-02804, S7W-02805, S7W-02806 and S7W-02807 — Scottish Parliament, answered 16 September 2026.
https://www.parliament.scot/home/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers?page=86
Second Homes and Empty Properties in September 2025 — Scottish Government, 16 December 2025.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/second-homes-and-empty-properties-in-september-2025/
Compulsory purchase orders: introduction — Scottish Government, last updated 21 July 2025.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/compulsory-purchase-orders-introduction/
Local government finance circular 6/2026: council tax on second and long-term empty homes guidance — Scottish Government, 25 March 2026.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/local-government-finance-circular-6-2026-council-tax-on-second-and-long-term-empty-homes-guidance/
