Common Repairs Policy - Section 3
3. Legal Framework
3.1 Section 27 and Schedule 4 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 and the Scottish Secure Tenants (Right to Repair) Regulations 2002 require Local Authorities to include basic repairing obligations in their Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreements.
3.2 The organisation of common repairs and general property maintenance matters within any multi-owned property is based upon the shared legal obligations that fall from ownership. Within any block of flats, or other multi owned property, there are communal parts such as roofs, stairs, garden area and external walls, which are normally the joint responsibility of all owners.
3.3 Rules detailing owners’ specific responsibilities for the upkeep, management and maintenance of the common elements are in the title deeds, which have been granted by the Council to tenants who have purchased their homes. This policy seeks to make provisions for the procedure for such repairs or renewals.
3.4 In the event of flat title deeds being silent on repair issues, owners' responsibilities for common repairs and maintenance are determined by the Tenement (Scotland) Act 2004. The Tenement (Scotland) Act 2004 governs the common rights of owners of flats in tenement buildings which are in separate ownership. The Act reforms the common Law of the Tenement and provides rules for managing tenements where title deeds do not provide procedures for decision making by all the owners. The Act provides a Tenement Management Scheme which will operate in any situation which is not adequately covered by the title deeds (Appendix 1).
3.5 Although title deeds granted by the Council specify liabilities and the Council can currently carry out common repairs and recharge as per the deeds, the deeds do not provide a decision making process for all owners. The Tenement Management Scheme will apply not just to privately owned tenements where the deeds are lacking, but to mixed tenure tenements.
3.6 The title deeds are generally silent on improvements. This policy seeks to make provisions for the procedure to be followed for improvement works.