Shared Repairs

If you own your own home, you are responsible for all repairs to the inside and outside of your house or flat. This includes paying a percentage of the cost of any shared repairs (repair or maintenance work which is for the benefit of everyone who lives in the same building).

This can include repairs to shared areas of the building your home is in, or the land it is on, for example, repairs to shared roofs, shared stairs, shared garden areas and shared walls.

There are two categories of shared repairs:

Emergency: this repair must be carried out to make the building safe, because there is a safety risk to a tenant or member of the public. For example, if the water, gas or electric supply fails. We do not need your permission to carry out this repair.

Necessary: although these are not an emergency, it would cause a lot of inconvenience if we did not do them. For example, repairing a roof to prevent rainwater leaking.

Your title deeds will normally tell you if you must pay towards a repair. It should detail which shared repairs you have to pay towards and what percentage of the total cost of the repairs you must pay.

If your deeds do not give you any information, and you:

The Tenement Management Scheme (TMS) explains what repairs tenants who live in flats should pay as shared repairs. Under the TMS, people in flats can decide to carry out shared repairs, as long as more owners agree to the works than do not agree. Usually, the costs are divided equally between all flats. However, if the floor area of one of the flats is more than 1.5 times that of any other, costs are divided based on floor area.

Costs of Shared Repairs

We run a grant scheme which may help you with some of the costs of having your property repaired, but it will depend on the kind of work needed. For more information about grants, you can email us. If you cannot afford to pay the repairs in one go, you may be able to pay in instalments.

Improvements

If you suggest an improvement, we will assess the planned work. You must get the agreement of the other owners involved to go ahead with the improvement. Once we have assessed the plans, we will write to tell you our decision.

If we suggest an improvement, we will give you an estimate of the costs, details of the contractors, tendering arrangements and planned timescales. We will give you the chance to discuss the plans, and we must have the agreement of all owners before we start the work.

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