Zero Fines for Short Term Let & Private Landlords in Highland Council 2022/23

At the start of the year I submitted a series of Freedom of Information requests following correspondence with the licensing department at Highland Council. I was seeking support from the council to help deal with my landlord who did not want to make repairs on her property; my home and – I had discovered – did not have a valid landlord registration. Despite the council warning to landlords that such a breach of the licensing laws could lead to a £50,000 fine, the council were not supportive. No such fine was ever issued. In fact I discovered that in the previous 18 months not a single such fine has been issued in the Highlands to rogue landlords. Indeed; nine months later and the property I was eventually evicted from can still be let according to the Scottish landlord register. To add insult to injury, Highland Council would eventually refuse my housing register application after I was evicted because they deemed my eviction invalid.

Context

My concerns at the property related to a list of repairs, lack of a valid rental contract, concerns about safety; no working fire or carbon monoxide alarms, no electrical safety report as well as common damp and insulation woes. These were serious concerns, latterly a home report would concur with my belief that the place was a total disaster. I politely (far too politely) expressed myself in a sorry to bother you, but…” type letter to my landlord testing the waters. My landlords response was not what I expected; she wrote that if I did not want the property; someone else would. She failed to engage with the repair issues, suggesting I must give her some inappropriate amount of notice if I felt it “was time to move on”. Shortly after I began an application to the first tier tribunal who asked that I provide a license number for my landlord, hers wasn’t valid. What to do? I thought the council would be keen to help.

First Contact

I called Highland Council in December 2023. “Hello licensing team, I am having trouble with my landlord and she is not registered. Help!” I found their response astonishing. They suggested I give my landlord another chance. They suggested that I, the tenant, should remind my landlord of her statutory requirements. I was informed that there was a huge backlog and that the “Rent Penalty Notice” (RPN) I was seeking – as leverage to get my landlord to take my concerns seriously – was not something that they knew much about. This was not what I expected.

I started trying to understand the licensing departments’ process. I simply wanted to know when they might back me up. After I discovered my landlord had already been chased by the council to arrange her registration application I thought they can’t be far off issuing an RPN which I had read – in their own guidance to landlords – would allow me to legally stop paying rent and force my landlord to the table. If I understood the process that might help determine a timeline so I started asking questions; of everyone. Correspondence with the council, my councillor, my allegedly homophobic MSP and my MP were all marked by a noticeable lack of interest and empathy.  The council’s lawyer, in particular, responded to me with a bizarre and defensive tone from the get-go, as if my persistent interest in the department policies had hit a nerve… someone had clearly said something they shouldn’t have in my initial call. The lawyers first reply to me concluded with a statement that she was “confident” the initial call I had made to the council was not as I remembered it. It was suggested I had been obstructive as in my first call I did not want to give my landlords details for fear she would evict me – after discovering how unhelpful the council would be I was quite right to be so cautious. It seems that helpfulness is in short supply at Highland Council, but defensiveness is not.

I was eventually evicted. The first tier tribunal was over subscribed and in the end I withdrew my third (and final) case after reading through a number of archived case reports from tenants in much worse situations that I; who’s diligent evidencing of crooked landlords was rewarded with two hundred quid and a slap on the wrist for the criminal landlord. I will share some of the stories I found there another day. What an unjust and unfit system.

I never quite knew what to do with the information that follows. So, I’m just going to leave it here and see what comes of it. I do not have a conclusion today there isn’t one here.

Finally; let us begin. During a housing crisis coinciding with a boom in short term let registrations not a single fine has been issued to rogue landlords in the Scottish Highlands. I concede there have been a number of late fees but not a single big whopper £50,000 fine. No wonder there are so many inept landlords out there.

A final aside in this introduction which is going nowhere – I have no conclusion – what you are about to read is a sort of ranty list… perhaps I will reword this into something else another day. For now – to set the tone – I give you my final tongue-in-cheek FOI which the council were unable to provide an answer for: FS-Case-576367555: wherein I enquired: what percentage of license dept. employees are landlords?

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Simple Canonical Redirect for WooCommerce

If your Woocommerce products are within multiple categories or hierarchies they will have multiple potential URLS. I always find this annoying. If you also find it odd that the URL displayed in the post edit screen under the Title box, which is named “permalink” is not automatically the go-to URL you might wish to utilise the following code to fix this with a 301 redirect.

Example:

 

website.com/scotland/glenelg-skye-ferry

would now redirect to the (correct) Permalink url:

website.com/travel/scotland/glenelg-skye-ferry

The code:

add_action('template_redirect', 'redirect_to_canonical_url');
function redirect_to_canonical_url() {
if (is_singular('product')) {
global $post;

// Get the canonical URL for the current product
$canonical_url = get_permalink($post->ID);

// Get the current URL
$current_url = (is_ssl() ? 'https://' : 'http://') . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];

// Normalize URLs to avoid issues with trailing slashes, query strings, etc.
$canonical_url = trailingslashit($canonical_url);
$current_url = trailingslashit(preg_replace('/\?.*/', '', $current_url)); // Strip query string

// Compare and redirect if necessary
if ($current_url !== $canonical_url) {
wp_redirect($canonical_url, 301);
exit;
}
}
}

Copenpay – encourage sustainable tourism

Genius – visitcopenhagen.com/copenpay 

Rent a kayak then clear some litter… as a thank you the council grant the helpful visitor free access to the museum. etc. What a brilliant scheme.

Highland Council Marketing Option

Look at this, at the end of applying to be on the housing register for Highland Council, this translates as “I understand you are homeless but can we take a moment to sell your details”. Outrageous.

In somewhat related news, building work has started in Glenelg for a few affordable homes. Apparently this is despite local opposition(!) to the development from the neighbour!

WooCommerce | Same Product Base & Shop Base

Here is a simple* code, modified after the solution by Le Van Toan outlined on his blog based in Vietnam. Have you ever tried to setup your own custom permalinks in WooCommerce so that the product base and the shop base are one and the same? This plugin makes it so.

Desired WooCommerce Shop/Products base structure:

shop page – website.com/shop/
product parent category archive page – website.com/shop/parent-category-slug/
product child category archive page – website.com/shop/parent-category-slug/child-category-slug/
single product page – website.com/shop/parent-category-slug/child-category-slug/single-product-page-slug

Here is what you need to set in Settings > Permalinks
visit website.com/wp-admin/options-permalink.php

Optional > Product category base: shop
Product permalinks > Custom base: /shop/%product_cat%/

Here is the code, for your functions.php

function category_base_is_shop_base(){
// Get all product categories
$terms = get_terms(array(
'taxonomy' => 'product_cat',
'post_type' => 'product',
'hide_empty' => false,
));

// Check if terms are retrieved successfully
if ($terms && !is_wp_error($terms)) {
$siteurl = esc_url(home_url('/'));
// Loop through each term to set up custom rewrite rules
foreach ($terms as $term) {
$term_slug = sanitize_title($term->slug);
$baseterm = str_replace($siteurl, '', get_term_link($term->term_id, 'product_cat'));
// Add rewrite rules for base term, pagination, and feeds
add_rewrite_rule($baseterm . '?$', 'index.php?product_cat=' . $term_slug, 'top');
add_rewrite_rule($baseterm . 'page/([0-9]{1,})/?$', 'index.php?product_cat=' . $term_slug . '&paged=$matches[1]', 'top');
// add_rewrite_rule($baseterm . '(?:feed/)?(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$', 'index.php?product_cat=' . $term_slug . '&feed=$matches[1]', 'top');
}
}
}

// Hook into 'init' action to set up rewrite rules
add_action('init', 'category_base_is_shop_base');

// Function to run when a new term is created
add_action('create_term', 'category_base_is_shop_base_edit_success', 10, 2);

function category_base_is_shop_base_edit_success($term_id, $taxonomy) {
category_base_is_shop_base();
// Inform the user to flush permalinks manually
add_action('admin_notices', function() {
echo '<div class="notice notice-warning is-dismissible"><p>To ensure your custom permalink structure works, flush your permalinks by going to Settings > Permalinks and clicking "Save Changes".</p></div>';
});
}

Visit your Settings > Permalinks and hit save twice to force flush/rebuilding of permalinks. Done.

“Masonry for Bricks Product Elements” – WordPress Plugin

Here’s a plugin I have written that extends the Bricks theme, specifically it allows you to use Masonry.js (built into WordPress) with the Product Element. I was surprised this wasn’t a built-in option and created this lightweight plugin to achieve integration. All you need to do is install the plugin and add a custom id to the product element.

The plugin is straightforward enough, you will find a settings panel where you may customise the style sheet. It is important you add the id `#masonry-for-bricks` to the relevant product element via the Bricks builder for the masonry effect to work.

Masonry for Bricks Product Elements – Download Plugin 1.1

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Give WordPress Media Thumbnails Their Own Directory

If, like me, you find WordPress incredibly messy in the way it fills up your media folder with a noise of rebuilt thumbnails here is a little code for your functions.php

It will create future thumbnails in their own /thumbnails/ directory within your media folder.

function custom_thumbnail_save_directory($metadata, $attachment_id) {
$custom_subdir = '/thumbnails/';

$upload_dir = wp_upload_dir();
$custom_dir = $upload_dir['basedir'] . $custom_subdir;

if (!file_exists($custom_dir)) {
mkdir($custom_dir, 0755, true);
}

if (!empty($metadata['sizes'])) {
foreach ($metadata['sizes'] as $size => $size_info) {
$source_file = $upload_dir['path'] . '/' . $size_info['file'];
$destination_file = $custom_dir . '/' . $size_info['file'];

if (file_exists($source_file)) {
rename($source_file, $destination_file);
}

$metadata['sizes'][$size]['file'] = 'thumbnails/' . $size_info['file'];
}
}

return $metadata;
}
add_filter('wp_generate_attachment_metadata', 'custom_thumbnail_save_directory', 10, 2);

function custom_thumbnail_directory($uploads) {
$custom_subdir = '/thumbnails/';

if (!file_exists($uploads['basedir'] . $custom_subdir)) {
mkdir($uploads['basedir'] . $custom_subdir, 0755, true);
}

return $uploads;
}
add_filter('upload_dir', 'custom_thumbnail_directory');

Use a plugin to rebuild your thumbs after adding this code. Now, isn’t that tidy?

Spain Scraps “Golden Visa”

I realise it is not clever to comment on the politics of someone else’s country but here’s a slice of common sense from Spain where the “Golden Visa” is to be scrapped. Currently 500,000 EUR can buy any foreigner a sizeable home in that country, but enough is enough. Last year foreign buyers accounted for 15% of all house sales in Spain. Highest number on record. In the meantime in Spain as with my own country, there’s a housing crisis and every bonnie corner is up for grabs, second or third homes in some cases. The cash rich offloading before a Labour government comes after them? It is hurting young people the most in Spain as it is in Scotland. The BBC ran a story about young people in Spain living out of their cars in areas dominated by expats. How wrong! Though in the Scottish Highlands we are not far off that reality, particularly on Skye in summer months. In Spain the government has decided to do something about it.

“…in major cities that are facing a highly stressed market and where it’s almost impossible to find decent housing for those who already live, work and pay their taxes there…”

Reuters report prime minister Pedro Sanchez as saying.

Wealthy foreigners in Spain can no longer buy their right to remain there. This is great news. Those who live in a place and contribute to it should be rewarded, not the highest bidder.

Thought you cannot buy residency in Scotland the sentiment of redressing the imbalance should similarly be made policy there. My belief is Scotland would never follow suit, specifically in the Highlands where my feeling is the (totally inept) Highland Council´s long term plan is a form of Clearances Mk. II. If only the pesky locals would get out of the way of AirBnBs, Danish owned forestry, Norwegian fish farms, electricity pylons! If they do successfully run those who already live, work and pay their taxes back into the larger towns and cities it’ll probably make for a tidier countryside. Less decrepit schools and GP practices. Who cares about workers in the wee hotels and Inns – Japan has showed us how to do vending machines for practically everything anyway. Concentrate the spending in Inverness and some public conveniences on the public convenience that is Skye. More breathing space for the few, certainly, those who can certainly afford to hoover up such deals as a one bedroom home in Glenelg (not even Skye), offers over 220,000 GBP! There is no “Golden Visa” in Scotland, no right to remain can be bought. But certainly there’s a lot to be sold. Who is cashing in?

Scottish Fish Farm Losses: 30% of Farmed Salmon Perish in 2023

I’ve just calculated* that – in Scotland alone – over 30% of fish farmed salmon may have been lost in 2023. If my interpretation of recently published numbers is correct this is utterly disgusting. Representing a 5% increase in mortalities as compared to the recent trend of 25% mortalities. A news article published yesterday by the BBC highlights the unfortunate effect warming oceans are having on salmon (forced to live and die in their closed pens) no doubt climate will have an effect on any harvest. However, it is surely the job of the fish farmer to improve methods of husbandry and make changes to reduce mortality. Surely they work with climate scientists and know what’s coming? Throughout the 2000’s it was standard practice for Scotlands fish farms to run at 20% mortality. Now it seems, with much increased numbers of farms (over 200 in Scotland), newfangled feed and technology things are getting worse not better. This is outrageous.

I find it sickening. No one likes the idea of battery raised chickens. Its almost an unacceptable idea today. Mortality rates of up to 14% in those tiny cages, poor chooks! Shocking. Did you know the UK’s Red Tractor farm assurance scheme requires mortality rates for chicken do not to exceed 5%? We seem to think free range chickens are okay – veggies aside – and a 5% mortality rate would appear to be publicly acceptable. The miserable fish farm industry in Scotland has been running at 25% mortality over the last few years (according to Inside Scottish Salmon Feed Lots). If the industry projections and my calculations are anywhere near right, then statements I’ve heard down my local “we dumped eight tonnes of dead Salmon, just this morning!” (that particular employee put it down to a mistake with some “treatment”) might well be accurate. Totally rotten work. These are our lochs they’re playing in. I’ve seen the trucks rolling over the mountain from the fish farms, it is common knowledge in the Highlands that fish farms are a disgrace, the companies in charge are clearly not capable.

* Calculations
Projected production for 2023 was 187,725 Tonnes. This is from industry figures published in a report given to the government last year. Annoyingly they do not give us a number of actual Salmon so with a very large pinch of Hebridean sea salt I calculated the number like this…

First, I need to estimate an average weight of a salmon. Stated as 5.5-6kg according to this site and a Scottish Government report (from a few years back) concurs. A 2020 report on the Scottish Government website produced with Marine Harvest seems to indicate 5.5kg is pretty average weight for fish farmed salmon in Scotland. They are the major producer. The website All About Feed references 5.2kg as the average gutted weight. I decided on a low average weight of disgusting fish farmed salmon at 5kg.

5kg divided by 187725000 kg (projected production tonnage 2023) is equal to 38 Million fish. That means 38 Million is the apparent number of salmon farmed in Scotland, 2023. From the most recently published numbers we learn that a further 17 Million salmon did not make it to market. 17 Million lost added to 38 Million projection gives us 55 million salmon to begin with. This is in line with figures from 2022 where the number of smolts (salmon added to the farms as stock) was stated at just over 55 million.

BBC News reports 17 Million salmon lost in 2023. I calculate there were 38 million salmon that made it to market. 55 Million in total of which the losses equal 31%. It could be as much as a quarter of toxic fish farmed salmon was lost last year.

The Scottish Government report (Mortality+information+-+until+end+January+2024.xlsx) described in detail the average weight of the lost salmon and someone with more spare time than me could probably calculate the actual weight of lost salmon per farm, then remove this from projected or true tonnages when published for absolute accuracy. Huge numbers obviously.

It appears this is very bad news for the Scottish Fish Farm industry. Long may they rot at the bottom of their metaphorical pen. Those horrible eyesores that they are, which so nobly offer the wee inhabitants of the wee far off Highlands a pittance (I’m mocking the often used line; what else would people do in the Highlands? “we need the fish farms, we need the jobs”). Not one of my friends in the Highlands makes a living from fish farming. Nor have I been offered any salmon caught there since I was a boy. In lochs once full of native salmon, even in my childhood I recall the delight at seeing (or even taking a chance at catching) these plentiful beauties. They appear to be all gone. That was just 30 years ago. Toxic fish farmed salmon is all we have now.

Rising Tide

I heard about an exciting new programme from the Scottish Government in December. I’ve bemoaned the lack of affordable housing in the Highlands on my blog (here), it was whist researching relocation to an island off the mainland of Scotland I came across the new ‘Islands Programme’ and thought these (apparently) well funded folks might be able to offer incredibly well-timed support and practical advice;

…the £25.8 million Islands Programme, established to support the implementation of the National Islands Plan. This is a landmark strategy to improve the quality of life for island communities with 13 objectives, and over 100 specific measures to address: population decline.

I wrote citing difficulties establishing myself in the Highlands: up against security of tenure, lack of commercial property to rent. I wrote expressing intention to invest in a place and build my business. etc. etc. I wrote asking for practical advice: is there a fund I can apply to, what might the requirements be for young people – like me – who want to live on an island, can individuals apply / businesses? How can I take part? The headlines put out by their PR department read: “want to be paid to move to a Scottish Island”, tell me more.

No response was ever offered. The website of the department is now offline: islandsteam.scot – how disappointing.