Tenement dwellings - provision of Building Reserve Funds: report

1. Executive Summary

This secondary and primary research built upon the detailed work of the Tenement Working Group (TWG) and extant responses to their proposals.

Conditions of tenements in Scotland, and indeed their current and future occupiers was of primary concern to all research participants. There was broad consensus to take steps towards:

• Addressing outstanding repair backlogs;
• planning for future repair needs; and
• setting the conditions for regular maintenance.

Within the second of these topics, this research was commissioned to focus upon the introduction of Building Reserve Funds (BRFs). Discussion of interrelated areas pertaining to both repairs and maintenance pointed towards a combination of legislation, guidance and intervention as follows:

• Mandatory buildings insurance which covers common areas of tenements.
• Mandatory factoring for tenements- either by professional factors or self-factoring by established Owners Associations.
• Extending the application of Tenement Management Scheme’s definitions of scheme property, scheme decisions and shared costs to all tenements, not only those with gaps in title deeds.
• Mandatory maintenance accounts to utilise for maintenance, including repairs and replacements for environmental reasons.
• Clear communication and checks of the above at point of sale by conveyancing solicitors.
• Prioritisation of outstanding repairs determined by regular professional surveys.
• Transparency on projected and actual spend on common maintenance and repair by factors.
• Supporting sources of guidance and new technology to empower groups of owners and Owners Associations to make and follow through TMS scheme decisions.
• Incentives to encourage regular, high quality maintenance supply and demand.