Consultation launched to make dangerous buildings safer

13 January 2011

A proposal by Highlands and Islands Labour MSP David Stewart to make dangerous buildings safer for the public has gone out for consultation.

The Building Repairs (Scotland) Bill aims to enable local authorities to more effectively enforce dangerous and defective buildings legislation while building in protection for owners affected by the changes.

If passed it would:

Extend the circumstances in which an authority can use charging orders to recover costs where it has carried out repair work to dangerous and defective buildings owned by others.

Increase the period available to homeowners to undertake repairs in relation to defective buildings from 28 days to 12 weeks to enable adequate time for owners to carry out repairs.

In the case of shared buildings, responsibility would automatically be apportioned among owners for repairs in equal shares and there would also be certification and regular inspection requirement for properties.

Mr Stewart said: "As the sad case of Christine Foster, an Australian student who was fatally injured by falling masonry whilst working as a waitress at a bar in the West End of Edinburgh in 2001, made clear, there must be vigilance to detect any sign of defective and dangerous buildings ensuring remedial work is undertaken before public safety is compromised."

In Scotland only 6 out of 32 Local Authorities have served formal Defective Building Notices. In cases where notices have been served there has only been a 48% success rate of cost recovery.

The Buildings (Scotland) Act 2003 grants substantial powers to Local Authorities, particularly if a building is considered to be dangerous.

However in practice it is clear that the enforcement regime does not work well, with a lack of proactive action taken on defective buildings, a substantial backlog of repairs needing completion and substantial losses for Local Authorities in unrecovered debts.

There are a number of barriers to Local Authorities ensuring that remedial work is carried out on defective buildings to prevent them reaching the stage where they would be considered dangerous to the public.

These barriers are primarily due to the legal and financial processes involved in recovery of costs and it is these barriers that this Bill would seek to address.

It is clear from the examples that follow in this document, from across Scotland, that the current system is not effective and that there is a clear need for change.

Mr Stewart added: "The consultation document proposes one primary change to cost recovery legislation whilst consulting more widely on other possibilities to address related areas.

"The change proposed would be the reintroduction of charging orders as a means of cost recovery for both dangerous and defective building notices.

"Additionally there would be a change in the timescale requirement for owners to carry out repairs upon defective buildings to ensure that there is adequate time for owners to make arrangements prior to the authority carrying out such work.

"The aim of the changes proposed is to ensure that there will be an effective enforcement regime in place to allow local authorities to carry out their duties in a simplified and more cost effective way.

"This would enable local authorities ultimately to promote public safety whilst at the same time protecting Scotland’s buildings for future generations. "

The consultation, which can be found on :

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/MembersBills/index.htm

will last until 11^th March 2011.