Tenants rights in scotland

[schiehallion]

Hello All.
i have previosly posted this in general law but i guess this is a civil matter ??
My Partner has an issue with the Aberdeen City Council. What it is is she lives on the top right of a block of four flats hers is the only one council owned, the others are bought. The roof has several slates missing and she has water ingress into her flat. this was first reported 13 yes 13 yrs ago and regualary since. she has been visited by the Clerk of Works several times who agrees something must be done, but it goes no further. the council say that the private owners must all agree to share the cost of repair and its up to my partner to tell them this. One neighbour the one below my partner says he will pay 25% and has told the council this but they keep telling him that the others must agree too. one of the others is a 97 yr old widow who to be honest should be in a home as she often is confused and is unaware of her surroundings (she has carers every day) the other flat is occupied by what can only be described as very transient people who come and go willy nilly. My question is who is responsible for contacting these neighbours and what rights as a tenant does my partner have. she cannot even decorate due to water staining in her living room and a bedroom
Cheers in advance
John.

[bednobs]

it seems like if the council has been dragging their heels for this long, its only sensible that your partner do it if she wants to get it done. If the job is only a couple of slates, can't she just have it done herself?

[schiehallion]

The last quote including the erection of scaffolding and some re pointing on top of the slate replacement was £785.00. would you pay that if it was your rented property.
John

[bednobs]

if i had been waiting 13 years for it to be done i probably would have, especially if i expected to be living there for the forseeable future. At the very least, i would have stopped waiting for the council and spoken to the other tenants or landlords myself. Sorry!

[bednobs]

ps, have you tried the council's complaint procedure?

[schiehallion]

As i said 1 neighbour is willing to share costs another is not quite compus mentus at the best of times and the final neighbours treat their door like the magic roundabout (never know who is there from one day to another plus they are not from uk) as for the complaints dept is a stock answer we will look into it then they send yet another clerk of works out who sympathises then goes off on his merry way.

[bednobs]

well then if she's not willing to even try with the neighbours, or use the complaints system again, i'm afraid i have no other advice

[bednobs]

plus i don't understand how if the neighbours are so unapproachable, you expect the council to do any better than her. It will probably be easier for her because at least she can approach them informally, and they've probably seen her before, whereas a visit or letter from the council might be overwhelming or frightening for the 97 yo. If she is as la la as you suggest, there will be someone looking after her affairs (or how does she pay her bills, etc) so perhaps a visit (she might surprise you) followed by an informal letter that whoever sorts out her finances can read and respond to

[karenmac60]

It is true that all parties have to agree to the repairs. However, I have heard of cases where the tenant has carried out repairs and billed the council or in extreme cases the council has done the repairs as they are urgent and has then forced the relevant parties to pay up. This link gives more information on what you can do - presumably your partner has a Scottish Assured Tenancy (I know my local authority signed all existing tenants up to this around 2003) which is covered by the info here.

http://scotland.shelt...-op/refusal_to_repair