Organising Common Repairs

What is it?

Organising common repairs, especially where there is no property factor requires some knowledge of buildings and can be time consuming.  This advice provides pointers as to help and assistance you can access as a group of homeowners

Who is it for?

This advice is for all owner occupiers and owner landlords of tenement buildings.

• There are situations where the property factor (if you have one) may be reluctant to take on the risk of proceeding with a repair on behalf of owners. These include:
• Where there is a history of factoring fees or common repair bills not being paid to the factor (for whatever reason)
• There is insufficient reserve in a repairs fund or the Float is exhausted
• Disputes over costs of works and liabilities between individual owners
• Lack of a majority of owners in support of the repair proposal
• An owner or owners cannot be traced
• A property has been abandoned and there is no redress against the person who previously held title
• Some owners are unwilling to co-operate at all with the factor or other owners
• A repair cannot be done because there is a protracted negotiation over the sale of a property where the cost of a repair is being disputed.
• One or more owners do not have the resources to pay for the repair

If the matter is not resolved within a reasonable period of time, this can result in a property falling into serious disrepair. The value of the property might also fall.

Where there is no property factor, the Council will consider providing financial support to owners to carry out a repair to encourage owners to appoint a property factor to act on their behalf in the future