Owners' responsibilities for common repairs

Home > Services > Housing > Private housing

All homeowners are responsible for repairs and maintenance to their property. However, if you live in a flat, tenement or apartment block, you will also be responsible for helping to maintain and repair common areas of your building.

On this page, you can find out:

• what 'common areas' are,
• who is responsible for common repairs,
• what happens when property is jointly owned with the council, and
• who to contact for more information.

What are common areas?

When you buy a flat you take on rights and responsibilities for the common structure of the whole building. These common parts are jointly owned with other owners in the building and may include:

• foundations and outside walls
• chimneys, stacks and vents
• the close and staircase
• bin stores and back courts
• the roof
• gutters, downpipes and drainage system
• door entry system
• common paths

Back to top

Who is responsible for common repairs?

If common areas of your building need to be repaired, every owner must pay a share of any common charges for works and services.

Your title deeds normally tell you about your rights and responsibilities for your own property and for your shared responsibility for the whole building. They may also detail your proportional share of common costs and your obligations to manage and maintain the building jointly with the other owners. If all of the flats in a building do not have the same conditions set out in their deeds, you should get advice from a solicitor or refer to legislation under the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004.

You may decide that the easiest way to handle maintenance and repairs is to hire a property manager or factor to take care of it for you. However, you may decide to self-manage the building, meaning that you and your co-owners would carry out any management work directly.

Back to top

Property that is jointly owned with the council

Because of the high level of right-to-buy sales in Renfrewshire, around 80% of the council’s flatted housing is now in buildings which are jointly owned with private homeowners. Co-operation and participation from all owners is therefore essential in securing common repairs and improvements in these buildings.

The council will not carry out repairs or improvements without consulting other owners within the building first. However, the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 allows us to carry out common repairs if a majority of owners agree to the work. We will also intervene where emergency common repairs are required, particularly where a repair directly affects a council-owned property. Other more general repairs that are reported by owners or tenants in a block will be assessed and prioritised. Please note that some jobs may have to be deferred due to budget restrictions.

We will launch a pilot of our new property management service in certain buildings shortly.

You can download our leaflet, 'Common repairs and property management' below. This leaflet explains how the council can help where it jointly owns property in a building:

Common repairs and property management (Warning! This document may take some time to download due to the large file size - 1.90 MB)

Regrettably, grants for common repairs works are generally no longer available from the council. However, if we own property in your building and we carry out common works costing over £1000 per house, we will help you with a package of financial assistance.

Back to top

Find out more

Consumer Focus Scotland has produced a guide called 'Common Repair, Common Sense' which contains other useful information on dealing with common repairs:

Common repairs, common sense (645 KB)

You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the documents on this page. Download Acrobat Reader here.

For more information on organising common repairs contact us:

• email: ownerservices.hps@renfrewshire.gov.uk or
• phone: 0141 847 6240

Back to top