DocuTenant vs SAL membership
The short answer
The Scottish Association of Landlords is the only national body dedicated to Scottish landlords, and its member library genuinely covers Scottish paperwork including the Notice to Leave, the PRT rent-increase notice and deposit prescribed information. Its unlimited telephone helpline is the thing we cannot match. The difference is that its documents are files you fill in, and ours are generated from your property record.
What SAL is
The largest and only national organisation representing landlords and letting agents throughout Scotland. Membership includes an unlimited telephone helpline open weekdays, a library of Scottish tenancy documents behind a member login, lobbying at Holyrood and Westminster, monthly member meetings, the Scottish Letting Day conference, discounted accreditation training and a magazine. Its document library covers private residential tenancies and the older tenancy types that predate them.
Everything on this page about SAL was read from their own site on 24 August 2026. Neither product’s price is listed here, because prices change and a stale one helps nobody. Check theirs on their site and ours on our pricing page.
Feature by feature
| Feature | SAL | DocuTenant |
|---|---|---|
| Scottish PRT tenancy agreementTheirs adds SAL-specific extra terms to the standard PRT. | SAL, Scottish PRT tenancy agreement: yes | DocuTenant, Scottish PRT tenancy agreement: yes |
| Scottish Notice to Leave | SAL, Scottish Notice to Leave: yes | DocuTenant, Scottish Notice to Leave: yes |
| Scottish rent-increase notice | SAL, Scottish rent-increase notice: yes | DocuTenant, Scottish rent-increase notice: yes |
| Deposit prescribed information | SAL, Deposit prescribed information: yes | DocuTenant, Deposit prescribed information: yes |
| Inventory | SAL, Inventory: yes | DocuTenant, Inventory: yes |
| Pet permission | SAL, Pet permission: yes | DocuTenant, Pet permission: yes |
| Breach and anti-social behaviour letters | SAL, Breach and anti-social behaviour letters: yes | DocuTenant, Breach and anti-social behaviour letters: yes |
| End-of-tenancy inspection and deposit deductions | SAL, End-of-tenancy inspection and deposit deductions: yes | DocuTenant, End-of-tenancy inspection and deposit deductions: yes |
| Legacy tenancy types (assured, short assured, AT2 notice) | SAL, Legacy tenancy types (assured, short assured, AT2 notice): yes | DocuTenant, Legacy tenancy types (assured, short assured, AT2 notice): no |
| Lodger, holiday let and company lease agreementsWe generate none of the three. | SAL, Lodger, holiday let and company lease agreements: yes | DocuTenant, Lodger, holiday let and company lease agreements: no |
| English documents | SAL, English documents: no | DocuTenant, English documents: yes |
| Documents generated from your stored recordsSAL documents are static downloads behind the member login. | SAL, Documents generated from your stored records: no | DocuTenant, Documents generated from your stored records: yes |
| Free preview before joining | SAL, Free preview before joining: no | DocuTenant, Free preview before joining: yes |
| Unlimited telephone helpline | SAL, Unlimited telephone helpline: yes | DocuTenant, Unlimited telephone helpline: no |
| Represents Scottish landlords in Parliament | SAL, Represents Scottish landlords in Parliament: yes | DocuTenant, Represents Scottish landlords in Parliament: no |
| Discounted accreditation training | SAL, Discounted accreditation training: yes | DocuTenant, Discounted accreditation training: no |
Choose SAL if
- You want to phone somebody about a Scottish tenancy problem. SAL offers an unlimited helpline on weekdays and describes it as the benefit members value most. We have nothing equivalent.
- You have older Scottish tenancies. Assured and short assured tenancies, and the AT2 notice, are still live paperwork for long-standing landlords and sit outside what we generate.
- You take a lodger, let holiday accommodation or hold a company lease. Those are real Scottish letting types we do not cover at all.
- You want Scottish landlords represented at Holyrood. That is worth something on its own, and no software does it.
- You want the accreditation training discount, the member meetings or Scottish Letting Day.
Choose DocuTenant if
- You let in both England and Scotland. SAL is Scotland only; we cover both, from one account, with the right jurisdiction applied per property.
- You want the document produced rather than downloaded and typed into. Ours fill themselves from the property and tenancy you entered once.
- You want to read the document before paying. Their library needs a login; our template documents preview free and unlimited.
- You want a published review date on each document and templates rewritten when the law moves, rather than a file you have to remember to re-download.
- You want your own logo on what you send the tenant.
SAL is the closest thing Scotland has to a proper landlord body
Scotland is genuinely underserved by the commercial document market. Most of the well-known template sites are English-first, and their Scottish coverage is either absent or years out of date. We say that about our competitors on other pages of this site and it is true.
SAL is the exception, and it is worth giving them proper credit. Their library covers the Scottish documents that actually matter: the Notice to Leave, the PRT rent-increase notice, deposit prescribed information under the 2011 regulations, the pet permission contract, end-of-tenancy inspection and deposit deduction paperwork. They publish a factsheet on the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025. When the Cost of Living Act changed the rent-increase templates, they reissued them and told members which date the new versions applied from.
That is a body doing its job. If you let in Scotland and you are not a member, the question is not really whether to use us instead of them.
Where the two actually differ
Once you set the helpline and the representation aside, the comparison narrows to two things.
Files against generation. SAL documents are downloads behind a login. You open them, you type your details in, you save your own copy. Ours are generated from a property and tenancy record you entered once, so the address, the tenant's name, the rent and the dates are the same in every document because they came from the same place. That matters more than it sounds. Documents that contradict each other are a real problem in a deposit dispute, and retyping is where the contradictions come from.
Scotland only against both jurisdictions. If everything you own is in Scotland, that is not a difference at all. If you have a flat in Glasgow and one in Newcastle, it is the whole difference, because the two need entirely different documents and SAL only does one of them.
Neither point argues against membership. They argue for being clear about which problem each thing solves.
Try a document free, no signup
Pick a document, fill in a few details and see a real preview on screen. No account, no card, no email. You only need to sign up if you want to download it.
Common questions
Sources
Every statute, form and scheme named above, linked to the primary source.
- Ending a private residential tenancy in Scotland — mygov.scot
- Rent increases for Scottish private tenancies — mygov.scot