The Act Regulatory intervention by Scottish Housing Regulator Section 58 – Appointment of manager for financial or other affairs
16.Section 58 of the 2010 Act relates to RSLs (and, unlike section 57, not all social landlords) and allows the Regulator to appoint a person as manager where it considers this is necessary to ensure the RSL manages its financial or other affairs to an appropriate standard.
17.As is the case with section 57, while the person can be appointed to manage the RSL’s financial or other affairs generally, or just aspects of those affairs, there is no express link between the failure which led to the manager’s appointment and the matters the person will manage, nor is there any express provision limiting the period of the manager’s appointment.
18.Section 1(3) amends section 58 by inserting a new subsection (1). This replaces the existing subsection and provides that the manager may be appointed only where the RSL is failing or has already failed to comply with a statutory duty (imposed on it by the 2010 Act or by other legislation) or where the RSL has failed or is failing to comply with a requirement imposed on it by the Regulator. Examples of the latter would include where the RSL has failed or is failing to comply with the Regulator’s requirement to address a failure to achieve standards of financial management and governance set out in the code of conduct under section 36 of the 2010 Act, or the Regulator’s requirement to achieve financial management or governance targets set by the Regulator under section 37 of the 2010 Act.
19.The test for appointing a manager is that the appointment is necessary to rectify the failure identified by the Regulator.
20.New subsection (1A), inserted into section 59 of the 2010 Act by section 1(4), also has the effect of limiting the period of the manager’s appointment under section 58 to the period necessary to rectify that failure.