Chamber and committees

Responsibility for maintaining tenements is principally the responsibility of the owners. The management and maintenance of tenements is usually governed by rules and conditions set out in the title deeds for the flats within the block. The Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 provides a structure, known as the Tenement Management Scheme (“the TMS”), for the maintenance and management of tenements. The TMS only applies if the title deeds do not make other arrangements or if they are defective. The TMS contains provision for majority decision making on a range of issues, including repairs.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 gave local authorities discretionary powers to require owners to carry out work on substandard houses and to provide assistance with repairs and improvements to private property. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 amended these powers to make them more effective in response to consultation with local authorities and other stakeholders, including new provisions to allow local authorities to pay missing shares for work agreed by a majority of owners in a tenement. In January 2017, the Scottish Government launched an area-based pilot of an equity loan scheme to assist owners to carry out essential repairs and energy efficiency improvements, which could facilitate common repairs in tenements.