Shared Repairs and the Tenement (Scotland) Act 2004
Owners of property in Scotland have a legal obligation to assist neighbouring properties in the upkeep and maintenance of all and any shared areas. In Edinburgh, where a high volume of properties are located within traditional tenements, or flatted buildings, this includes maintaining and repairing of roofs, shared stairs and entrances, as well as shared outdoor areas such as communal gardens or drying greens.
In the perfect world all owners within a development will communicate well and work together at ensuring the fabric of their building, including the security and upkeep of all shared areas, is maintained to a high standard and that any repairs are attended to as soon as possible. However, in this not so perfect world, very often a small portion of owners ignore their responsibilities for such shared areas and delay or ignore communications from other owners who are keen to meet their responsibilities of their ownership.
Watt Property are not registered Property Factors, so are unable to carry out the administration involved in assisting property owners with shared maintenance of their properties, but through our years of experience and, quite often, previous involvement, within many Edinburgh tenements, we are able to provide guidance and support to our landlords in such instances.
Additionally, Edinburgh City Council are keen to guide landlords in attending to Shared Repairs and have produced a very helpful step by step leaflet on how owners can arrange these repairs. This leaflet can be downloaded via the link below.
