Obstinate homeowners or absentee landlords will no longer be able to prevent their more responsible neighbours from having essential communal repair work carried out, if the Scottish Parliamentary Working Group on Tenement Maintenance sees their wishes put into practice.
They hope common sense prevails and the deterioration of the country’s flatted tenement stock, spanning generations, can be reversed.
As detailed in our previous stories on this topic, the Scottish Parliamentary Working Group has been meeting since March 2018 with the purpose of establishing solutions to aid, assist and compel homeowners of tenement properties to maintain their buildings. On 16th January 2019 the group published its interim recommendations. Whilst only part of the resolution, we hope, if effected, these enhance the ability of tenement homeowners to work collectively, encouraging and enabling effective maintenance and repair of their properties.
We are delighted that our Managing Director, Mr Neil Watt, continues to share his extensive knowledge, experience and passion with this working group and hope that we can continue to help and assist our home owning customers in improving the repair and maintenance standards of tenements and blocks of flats throughout the country.
The three recommendations go hand in hand, with each necessary to achieve the long-term goals for homeowners and tenements. Click on each recommendation below for fuller details:
- Tenement Inspections every five years, undertaken by architects or surveyors
- Establishment of Sinking funds, operated through similar models used by Safe Deposits Scotland and Credit Unions
- Compulsory establishment of owners’ associations
We look ahead with anticipation to the future developments and improvements hopefully arising from the these interim recommendations and any homeowners wishing to find out more about how Hacking and Paterson can assist them with proactive maintenance please contact us here.
These are interim recommendations and as such the working group are seeking comment and critique. Should any of our homeowner customers wish to respond to the recommendations, they should email research@befs.org.uk by Wednesday 27th February 2019. We understand the group intend to make recommendations to the Scottish Parliament following the Easter recess.
In tandem with the above, BEFS and RICS, with additional financial support from the Scottish Government, commissioned a report from Professor Douglas Robertson, Stirling University. This paper examines: the current arrangements for ensuring that common repairs are undertaken within flatted property in Scotland, and asks if these arrangements are effective?. To read the full report, please visit here
