Pubs Code (Scotland)

Unlock Your Rights and Ensure Compliance with Expert Guidance – The Scottish Pubs Code, introduced under The Tied Pubs (Scotland) Act 2021 and brought into force by The Scottish Pubs Code Regulations 2024, now governs every relationship between pub-owning businesses and their tied tenants in Scotland.

The code became active on 31 March 2025, with the landmark Market Rent Only (MRO) rights opening on 30 June 2025. It grants tenants powerful new protections and imposes clear, time-bound duties on landlords.

Whether you’re a tied pub tenant ready to escape costly ties or a pub-owning business adapting to new obligations, MDE Pub Consultants delivers expert, confident guidance. From tailored MRO lease support to end-to-end pub landlord compliance services, we help you capitalise on every opportunity and sidestep every pitfall.

As a tied pub tenant in Scotland, you now have unprecedented protections and options under the Scottish Pubs Code. The code mandates fair and lawful dealing by your landlord and ensures you’re “not worse off than if [you] were not subject to any product or service tie”.

In practical terms, this means you gain:

• Transparency and Fair Rent Reviews: During rent reviews, your landlord must provide detailed information on how your rent is calculated (including the assumptions, figures, and even a 12-month profit forecast). This transparency empowers you to challenge unfair estimates. MDE Pub Consultants can provide pub rent assessment help – analysing proposed rents and helping you negotiate a fair deal.
• Guest Beer Rights: You now have the right to sell at least one guest beer of your choice, alongside your landlord’s products. The only condition is that the chosen beer comes from a smaller brewer (producing ≤5,000 hectolitres annually). This guest beer right lets you introduce a popular local or craft beer to boost your trade – a freedom tied tenants never had before. We’ll guide you on how to exercise this right effectively (including dealing with the full process and help to pick qualifying brands).
• The Option to Go Free-of-Tie (MRO): Perhaps the biggest game-changer is the Market Rent Only (MRO) option – essentially, your right to a free-of-tie lease in Scotland. At certain trigger points (for instance, at the halfway point of your lease term) you can request an MRO agreement. Under an MRO lease, you pay a fair market rent with no obligation to buy products from the landlord, ending the traditional tie. This gives you the freedom to source cheaper supplies and potentially improve your profit margins. The code guarantees every tied tenant this opportunity to “move to a market rate lease that allows other suppliers” – levelling the playing field for your pub business. Click here for a full guide to the MRO process.

These rights are powerful, but the process to exercise them can be complex. You might be asking: When exactly can I trigger an MRO request? How do I formally propose a MRO lease? Can my pub company refuse, and on what grounds? Or, what’s the procedure for introducing a guest beer without breaching my contract? – These are important questions many tenants have. This is where we come in.

MDE Pub Consultants offers tied pub lease advice at every step. We explain your rights in plain English, help with paperwork and negotiations, and stand by your side to ensure you secure the best possible outcome from the Pubs Code. With expert advice, you can confidently exercise your rights without fear of retaliation or getting lost in legalities. Your pub’s future could include a fair rent, a more flexible beer range, and greater control over your business – and we help make that a reality.

If you’re a pub-owning business or landlord with tied pubs in Scotland, the Pubs Code introduces new responsibilities and compliance challenges. Unlike the Pubs Code in England & Wales (which only applied to very large pub companies), the Scottish Pubs Code covers all tied pubs in Scotland. That means every pub landlord with tied agreements – large or small – must adhere to the code’s rules. Non-compliance isn’t an option: the independent Scottish Pubs Code Adjudicator can investigate breaches and even impose fines if you don’t follow the code. MDE Pub Consultants is here to ensure you stay on the right side of these regulations while maintaining a healthy relationship with your tenants.

Key implications for pub owners include:

• Fair Dealing and Transparency: You are now legally required to engage in fair and lawful dealings with tenants. This includes providing comprehensive information during rent assessments and negotiations (e.g. the rental calculation methods, profit forecasts, and sales volumes). We help you prepare these disclosures properly, so your tenant feels informed and respected – and you avoid disputes.
• Handling MRO Requests: When a tenant requests a Market Rent Only lease, you must follow a strict timeline and process. Generally, if a tenant qualifies for an MRO (e.g. their agreement is at the halfway point), you must offer a MRO proposal within 4 weeks of the request, unless a limited exemption applies (such as the lease being very short or a recent MRO request was already addressed). The offer must include a proposed new rent (at market rate) and draft contract terms. Then both parties enter negotiations for up to 8 weeks, possibly followed by an independent rent assessment if no agreement is reached. This process is formal and can be daunting. Our team will guide you through MRO compliance, ensuring your offers meet the code’s requirements and negotiating terms that protect your business interests while remaining fair to the tenant. We can even advise on structuring free-of-tie lease agreements that satisfy the code yet work for your commercial needs.
• Guest Beer and Other Rights: You’ll need to accommodate the guest beer provision. Every tied tenant has the right to stock a guest beer, so you should have a Guest Beer Agreement in place. This typically means allowing the tenant to remove one of your tied products to make tap space for their chosen guest beer. We help pub owners draft sensible guest beer policies and communicate them clearly to tenants, so everyone understands the boundaries and opportunities. By embracing this new right proactively, you can turn it into a win-win (for example, by collaborating with tenants on beer choices that drive traffic).

Ultimately, compliance with the Scottish Pubs Code isn’t just a legal duty – it’s an opportunity to build better partnerships with your tenants. Showing that you deal fairly, honour their new rights, and seek mutual benefit will strengthen trust and long-term success. Our consultants work with pub companies to develop Code-compliant strategies: updating your tenancy agreements, training your management and BDMs on the code, and troubleshooting any issues that arise. We’ll help you avoid common pitfalls (like delaying responses or using old lease terms that inadvertently breach the code) so you stay clear of disputes and penalties. With our expertise, pub landlord compliance becomes straightforward, letting you focus on running a profitable estate in Scotland’s new regulatory environment.

Market Rent Only (MRO) is a cornerstone of the new code – but what exactly does it entail? In simple terms, an MRO lease is a tenancy agreement with no product or service tie, where the tenant pays a market rent and can purchase supplies from any source. It’s often called going “free-of-tie.” The rent in an MRO deal is set to what would be reasonable in an open market between knowledgeable parties, assuming the pub is free of tie. In other words, the tenant should pay a fair rent only, instead of inflated product prices or extra fees to the landlord. An MRO lease “brings an end to the tied-pub elements of the lease” while otherwise keeping the tenant-landlord relationship intact.

Under the Scottish Pubs Code, tied tenants will have the universal right to request an MRO option – a right not previously available in Scotland. Here’s how it works in practice: you can typically trigger an MRO request at specific times, most commonly at the halfway point of your lease term (for example, in year 5 of a 10-year lease). You can send a written request (the code even allows you to do this up to 6 months before the halfway date). Once your request is in, the pub-owning company must either agree to offer a MRO lease or cite a valid exemption within 21 days (exceptions are limited – e.g. very short agreements, recent MRO requests, imminent lease expiry, or qualifying investment cases). If no exemption applies, the landlord then has 4 weeks to propose a MRO deal in writing.

That’s when the real negotiations begin – you’ll have up to 8 weeks to negotiate the terms of the new MRO lease. If you reach an agreement, you’ll go free-of-tie under those terms. If not, an independent rent assessor can be jointly appointed to determine the fair market rent, ensuring neither side overpays or undercharges. Throughout this process, the Scottish Pubs Code Adjudicator is available as a backstop for disputes, ensuring neither side stalls or frustrates the process (landlords who don’t engage properly can even be fined for breaching the code).

MDE Pub Consultants provides complete MRO lease support across Scotland. This means if you’re a tenant, we help you from start to finish: assessing whether an MRO is financially advantageous in your case, formally drafting the request, and negotiating the lease terms (rent, tenure, repair obligations, etc.) to get you the best possible free-of-tie deal. We’ll decode any MRO offer you receive and benchmark it against market norms, so you know if it’s truly fair. And if an independent rent assessment or arbitration is needed, we guide you through it and can liaise with surveyors or legal advisors on your behalf. Our goal is to make the MRO transition smooth and successful, so you can enjoy the benefits of a free-of-tie pub without unintended consequences.

If you’re a landlord, our MRO support ensures you handle tenant requests correctly and efficiently. We advise on preparing a compliant MRO proposal that meets the code’s requirements and minimises the risk of rejection or dispute. We can also assist in the negotiation stage, helping you find common ground that keeps a good tenant in place under a sustainable free-of-tie arrangement. By getting expert help, you demonstrate good faith and avoid missteps that could lead to adjudicator intervention. In short, whether you’re giving or going free-of-tie, MDE Pub Consultants has the expertise to navigate every MRO step so that both parties come out ahead.

Choosing the right advisor is crucial when dealing with the Scottish Pubs Code. MDE Pub Consultants is uniquely qualified to help tenants and pub companies alike, thanks to our unmatched experience and proven track record in this niche field. Here’s why clients trust us as the Pubs Code experts Scotland relies on:

• Deep Pubs Code Expertise: We live and breathe the Pubs Code. Our team has been involved with pub tenancy regulations since the first Pubs Code emerged in England in 2016, and we’ve closely followed the development of the Scottish Pubs Code from day one. We know the letter of the law and the practical realities – from the finer points of MRO lease terms to the proper way to calculate rents under the code. When new guidance or updates are issued, we’re on top of it. Simply put, no one understands this area better.
• Proven Outcomes: We have a strong history of delivering results for our clients. Our consultants have successfully negotiated free-of-tie leases for tenants, achieving substantial rent reductions and more favourable terms in the process. We’ve helped tenants save money on beer prices and improve their pub’s profitability by going MRO. On the other side, we’ve guided landlords through complex MRO negotiations that ended in mutually beneficial agreements (avoiding the cost and conflict of legal disputes). Our advice has directly contributed to pubs getting fairer rents and pub companies staying compliant with ease – tangible outcomes that set us apart.
• Industry Credibility: MDE Pub Consultants is not a generalist business advisor – we are specialists in the pub sector. Our lead consultant, Michael Erridge, is a seasoned professional with a decade of experience in the Pubs Code in England & Wales, pub operations, leasing, and valuation. This experience means we offer well-rounded advice that considers both commercial and legal factors. You can trust our guidance, knowing it’s rooted in real-world pub industry knowledge.
• Client-Focused Service: We pride ourselves on being approachable and responsive. Navigating the Pubs Code can be stressful – but when you work with us, you’re never alone. We take time to understand your unique situation, be it a single pub tenancy or a portfolio of leases. Then we tailor our advice to your needs and goals. We communicate clearly (no jargon overload) and keep you informed at every step. Our mission is to empower you with the confidence and strategy to achieve the outcome you want. Past clients often remark on our professionalism, attention to detail, and the personal care we put into every case.
• Comprehensive Support: The Scottish Pubs Code has many moving parts; our services cover them all. From tied pub lease advice and MRO lease support, to rent assessment analysis, guest beer introductions, and dispute resolution, we handle it. We can liaise with solicitors, the Pubs Code Adjudicator’s office, or other professionals as needed on your behalf. Think of us as your one-stop partner for all Pubs Code matters in Scotland. We don’t just give you a consultation and send you on your way – we can actively support and represent you through negotiations, paperwork, and any hearings or arbitrations. Our holistic approach means no aspect of your Pubs Code journey is overlooked.

When you choose MDE Pub Consultants, you are choosing credibility, experience, and success. We adhere to the highest professional standards. Above all, we are on your side – independent advisors who will fight for your interests and ensure the Pubs Code delivers on its promise of fairness.

Ready to take the next step? Getting expert help is simple and could be the best decision you make for your pub business. Contact us today to discuss your situation and find out how we can assist with the Scottish Pubs Code. Whether you’re curious about your options or facing an urgent deadline (like a looming rent review or MRO window), we’re here to help right now.

📞 Call us on 0330 088 3133 or email info@mdepc.co.uk to speak with a Pubs Code expert. We offer an initial consultation to understand your needs – no obligation, just straightforward advice. You can also reach out via our online contact form and we’ll respond promptly to set up a chat at your convenience.

Don’t navigate the Scottish Pubs Code alone or wait until a small issue becomes a major problem. With the right advice and support, you can turn these regulations into real advantages for your business. Unlock your rights, protect your investment, and move forward with confidence. Get in touch with MDE Pub Consultants now, and let’s ensure the Scottish Pubs Code works for you.

Your pub, your rights – our expertise. Together, we’ll make the most of this new era for Scottish pubs. Contact us today and let’s get started!