The present and future maintenance of Scotland’s housing stock is a crucial topic which has been the subject of various reports, working groups and projects from both local and national government over the past 5, 10 and indeed 50 years.
Focussing on residential, multi-ownership buildings, from our traditional 19th century tenements, to mid and late 20th century blocks of flats and the ongoing construction of modern apartment blocks, this work includes:
- The Glasgow tenement improvement projects of the 1970s and 1980s, following the great storm of 1968 and the 1971 Housing Act’s funding of substantial building renovations
- The implementation of legislation including:
- The Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 looking at the “law of the tenement”
- The Building (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 looking at building standards / enforcing repairs and repairing standards / obligations
- The Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 which regulates and aims to improve standards in the factoring industry
- The 2014 Report of the Glasgow Factoring Commission which acknowledged the importance of professional property factoring services, homeowner investment into their buildings maintenance and the need for mandatory common buildings insurance
- The work in recent years of the Tenement Maintenance Working Group and Professor Douglas Robertson’s report Why Flats Fall Down which recommend compulsory Owners Associations, building reserve funds and regular inspections of buildings to help building owners address their properties’ needs.
HPMS have been involved in, contributed to and supported many of these activities, with a view towards reaching the position where Scottish property owners can be effectively encouraged, supported and obliged to plan and deliver the long-term maintenance and improvement of their property, for the benefit of the building owners, its residents and the communities served by these properties.
The need for professional property factoring services, which underpin groups of homeowners who can make effective decisions and who can access funding and the regulatory support needed to maintain and improve their buildings, has been a consistent theme throughout work in this area. A long term solution to the problems homeowners find in these areas will require the Scottish Government to deliver upon the recommendations and body of knowledge which has emerged from this work.
Well-maintained buildings offer many clear advantages and it is increasingly recognised that improving the condition of our housing stock has a major role to play in reaching the country’s climate goals.
The recent report from the Tenements Short Life Working Group identifies many of the challenges which have been found in the work carried out in years gone by and underlines the important measures recommended which we hope to see implemented in the near future.
You can read the report in full here and we have extracted some of the pertinent points below:
We all deserve somewhere warm, safe and comfortable to live. The climate and cost of living crises we face have brought into sharp focus the challenging, but equally important, need to decarbonise our homes in a way that is achievable and affordable for all.
Furthermore, undertaking any sort of common works in mixed ownership and/or mixed use buildings presents various additional challenges, from disagreements between residents to confusion over ownership rights and responsibilities, to finding and then paying for contractors with the appropriate skills.
The repair and maintenance of these buildings must come first in the order of importance as there is little merit in installing additional energy efficiency measures until the building is in a good state of repair. In order to maximise benefits to occupants, ameliorate fuel poverty, and to reach demand reduction targets, existing fossil fuel heating systems should only be replaced by zero direct emissions systems after appropriate property repair and energy efficiency measures are in place. The order of priority must be: repair > maintenance > energy efficiency > zero direct emissions heat.
Building owners working cooperatively to undertake necessary works is the overriding issue we face and so facilitating this should be the priority. As owners are unlikely to be experts in the areas in which we are asking them to act they will require guidance and support. This issue is compounded by the fact that many tenements are not factored and so lack the professional building management that could help facilitate works.
Any new funding programmes developed by government to tackle the challenge of tenements will need to address the issue of owners within a single tenement being in potentially significantly different financial situations from one another. Funding for necessary works must either be available to the building as whole (possibly via compulsory owners’ associations should they be established in future) or significant assistance provided to each owner in the building to identify what funding is available to them individually.
While the costs of decarbonising our building stock will be enormous and owners will require considerable support, the Group is also keen to highlight the significant economic and cultural opportunities that the transition to Net Zero can bring if correctly harnessed. Local jobs and supply chains can be prioritised to boost communities, new green jobs and industries developed, and our built environment enhanced and future proofed to ensure our homes and buildings are safe, warm and efficient for generations to come.
The SLWG strongly supports the establishment of compulsory owners’ associations as recommended by the Scottish Parliamentary Working Group on Tenement Maintenance and which is now being considered by the SLC. It also understands the timeline and process of the SLC in undertaking its work.
While the Scottish Law Commission undertakes its law review work examining compulsory owners’ associations, it is important that the Scottish Government simultaneously takes forward work on the five-yearly building inspections, and building reserve funds that were also recommended by the Scottish Parliamentary Working Group on Tenement Maintenance.
If we can help you start addressing any problems you are experiencing with your common property, please get in touch and we will be pleased to speak with you.
