Those wishing to amend the database, to add or subtract properties, will have to pay an amendment fee.The scheme’s start date has already been put back from 31 March because the registration website and database isn’t ready. So a landlord with two properties in two different council areas will pay £90.75 (£55 + £13.75 + £11 + £11), though there will be a discount of 10 per cent for registering online. It also aims to ensure that landlords cooperate with councils to try to reduce tenants’ antisocial behaviour.For the local authority to deem that the landlord is a “fit and proper” person, they will run checks to see if the landlord has a history of fraud, dishonesty, violence, drugs, unlawful discrimination or has failed to look after houses properly or help the authorities to deal with antisocial behaviour of tenants in the past.The minimum fee to register is £55 and there is a further fee of £13.75 for each additional local authority area where the landlord lets, plus an £11 fee for each property. The only exceptions will be when the landlord lives in the same property and holiday lets.Landlords with HMOs will already be licensed under existing HMO licensing rules, but for everybody else it will be an offence to continue letting residential property in Scotland if they have not submitted a valid application to register on the new database.Richard Williams of the National Landlords Association says: “Fines are tough – up to £5,000 for non-registration and the stopping of rent payments.”The theory is that the scheme will remove more disreputable landlords from the market by checking that those on the register are “fit and proper” people to rent property. In Scotland, for example, all residential let property with three or more unrelated tenants has to be licensed as a “house in multiple occupation” (or HMO), whereas in England and Wales mandatory licensing in most areas will be restricted to HMOs with three or more storeys and five or more tenants.
Now, to make matters worse, a new law called the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (Scotland) 2004 says that, from 30 April, all landlords of any private rented accommodation will need to apply to be registered with the local authority in the area in which they let.This means that all landlords letting out accommodation in Scotland will now have to be licensed. But on price in the UK, it is a matter for the Government to decide. We are in the middle of a review of the Act and the consultation on the review has not addressed the market aspect of IVF,” he said..

House prices and rental incomes are both doing well in Scotland and this has tempted many property investors north of the border. However, what few realise is that the regulatory regime for landlords is much tougher than in England and Wales. A spokesman said that commercial regulation was not on the horizon. “We have said we want to see clearer financial information given to patients, which is the first step along that road. To protect themselves, patients need to see this as a commercial transaction and they will wind up in a better place emotionally,” she said.

Lack of information and lack of equity were the two chief problems, Professor Spar added.The HFEA currently provides only ethical regulation of the clinics. People need to know up front what the success rates are and what the final price of a baby is likely to be,” she said.Without commercial regulation, prices would continue to rise and fertility treatment could end up as a luxury service “like the high-end jewellery market”, Professor Spar argued. At the same time, doctors could find themselves compromised by patients who demanded they continue with treatment even though it was useless.”There is an inherent conflict for doctors, who may be forced in to a position where they don’t have anything to stop them providing treatment over and over regardless of the chance of success. However, there is no requirement on clinics to tell patients in advance what the costs of treatment are or the chances of success.The Government is currently reviewing the law and Professor Spar said that providing detailed financial information with likely costs for patients of differing ages and with differing problems was essential. A woman of 26 with blocked fallopian tubes was easier – and therefore cheaper – to treat than a woman of 42 with hormonal problems.”We need to make more information available so consumers have a better sense of what the price will be. Price is not mentioned, parents have treatment that doesn’t work, they try again, it doesn’t work again and they end up paying large sums they didn’t expect to because no one acknowledged it was a commercial market,” she said.One in seven couples is infertile, but the availability of IVF on the NHS is limited and 80 per cent of treatment in the UK is provided privately. Doctors see themselves as building families and parents see themselves as conceiving a child, not purchasing one.