Roofing in Edinburgh: organising a shared roof repair

If your title deeds do not say how repairs are decided, the Tenement Management Scheme in the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 applies. The roof is scheme property, maintenance counts as repairs and replacement, and decisions are made by a majority of all the votes, one vote per flat. An owner calling a meeting must give the others at least 48 hours' notice.

Costs for the roof over the close are usually shared equally between the flats, unless the largest flat is more than one and a half times the size of the smallest, in which case they are shared by floor area. Your deeds may say something different, and where they do, they normally take priority.

Source: legislation.gov.uk

The City of Edinburgh Council runs the Edinburgh Shared Repairs Service for private owners of tenement flats and upper and lower villas. It gives free advice by phone, publishes a tenement toolkit with templates and checklists, and operates a Missing Shares Service. Where an owner cannot be found, cannot pay or will not pay, the council can consider paying that share of the repair bill and recovering it from the owner later.

That matters for roofs in particular, where one owner's refusal can hold up a repair that is letting water into everyone's home.

• a written specification the owners can vote on
• a price per flat, showing how shares were calculated
• scaffolding, access and any road permits included
• what happens to listed or original features such as slates, lead and cupolas
• a programme and a guarantee on the work

Source: edinburgh.gov.uk

Edinburgh has its own statutory notice powers under the City of Edinburgh District Council Order Confirmation Act 1991. The council keeps a property enquiry register of addresses subject to statutory notices, and a paid statutory notice enquiry is part of many purchases. A listing does not always mean a debt is outstanding, but if you are buying a flat in a building where roof work has been done under a notice, ask your solicitor to check.

Source: edinburgh.gov.uk

The Old and New Towns are a World Heritage Site and contain a great many listed buildings. Repairs using matching materials usually need no consent, but changing materials, altering rooflines, adding rooflights or replacing traditional features on a listed building needs listed building consent. Roofs in the New Town are often hidden behind parapets with lead-lined valleys and gutters, where a leak can run a long way before it appears inside. A contractor who knows these roofs will inspect the valleys and gutters, not only the slopes you can see from the street.

Source: historicenvironment.scot

Describe the building, the problem and whether the other owners are involved. Roofing contractors covering Edinburgh see the request without your name. One contractor can buy it and then has it alone; we email you its name, address and phone number before it sees yours. You pay nothing. Offrano does not check workmanship, so ask for references from other stairs the contractor has worked on.