In our May news article we advised of the Scottish Law Commission’s Discussion Paper which focused on compulsory owners’ associations.

This is the culmination of several years’ work, first introduced into Scottish parliamentary debate in 2018. Scottish Government has since requested the Scottish Law Commission review the current law relating to tenements and to make recommendations for reform, particularly to implement proposals on the establishment, formation and operation of compulsory owners’ associations.

As the deadline for public and industry response to the Paper nears, we wish to share some of the principle matters raised in the Paper. In all there are 79 questions in the Paper for respondents to consider and can be found in this link.

Every tenement in Scotland containing three or more units to have an Owners’ Association, which will be a bespoke body corporate, whose duties include:

• To enter its details on a public register
• To be governed by a prescribed management regime, called the Owners’ Association Scheme
• To hold an AGM every year
• To approve an annual budget of anticipated tenement maintenance, repair, improvement and insurance costs
• To appoint a manager, who may be an owner or a registered property factor
• To implement the Owners’ Association Scheme which is to be shared between the Association and a manager appointed by them
• To enforce any obligation owed by one owner to another under the relevant management scheme

Some further matters of interest are:

• If the appointed manager is an owner they are not to be bound by the Property Factors [Scotland] Act 2011
• In the event that duties are not fulfilled by the Owners’ Association an appointment of a remedial manager to be made, that manager to have authority to implement the Owners’ Association Scheme
• It is anticipated that subsequent legislative changes will be considered to deal with building condition inspections and building reserve funds, the implementation of which would become a duty of the Owners’ Association

At HPMS we continue to support the work of the Scottish Government and the Scottish Law Commission. We believe it is very important that the country’s tenement housing stock has more significant robust rules about its management and  maintenance than at present. By implementation of these recommendations allied to building condition inspections and building reserve funds, the future of our built environment will be so much better.