Your titles may set out the share to be paid by each owner in a number of ways.
The most common ways that costs are shared are by:
- equal shares
- by set percentages or fractions
- by Assessed Rental, Annual Value (Gross or Net) or Rateable Value
- by floor area
If your title deeds say your share is a percentage or fraction, you should look at the title deeds for each flat in your building and check these add up to 100%. If they don’t, you will need to share costs according to the default rules in the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004.
If your sharing arrangement is by Assessed Rental, Gross Annual Value, Net Annual Value, or Rateable Value, the default rules require you to find out what these values were as of 31st March 1989, before the Community Charge (Poll Tax) was introduced. These values can be found in the relevant valuation roll for your property. Valuation rolls are most often kept in your local library but in some cases, these are stored elsewhere.
For example, in Glasgow, most valuation rolls relating to what was at the time the Strathclyde Regional Council area (covering Ayrshire, Bute, Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, almost all of Argyllshire, part of Stirlingshire, and the whole of Glasgow City) are held by the Mitchell Library.
The National Records of Scotland also hold copies of some valuation rolls. If your property used to form part of a larger development that was owned by a housing association, you may find that the housing association were transferred the valuation rolls at some point in the past.
If you share maintenance costs by reference to floor area, the default rules in the Tenements Act details how to measure up.
Your titles may specify that one flat, or a shop, should pay much more than other owners. This can stop repairs from going ahead. Depending on the voting rights of that flat or shop, this may make it difficult to get a majority agreement (or full agreement if required) for certain repairs. If this is the case, you can make a one-off scheme decision to divide costs in a different way if the owners decider this is fairer or necessary to get an important repair done. This arrangement does not change your formal titles and is not permanent. If you want to make that arrangement permanent, you will need to change your title deeds.
