The Scottish Government

Registration requirements - needed to enable registration

Identification of property:

• title if in land register (including identification as a separate unit if the property forms part of a registered title, for example a flat in a tenement);
• conveyancing description if in Register of Sasines.

Legislative requirements - mandatory (s43)

The Act requires the maintenance plan to include:

• specification of maintenance required throughout the period of the plan;
• any steps to carry out that maintenance - including where anything needs to be repaired or replaced;
• when such steps are to be taken; and
• estimate of likely costs.

For joint plans:

• apportionment of liability amongst owners (in line with title deeds, TMS or DMS).

Legislative requirements - optional (s44)

For joint plans:

• can apportion responsibility for maintaining amongst owners (in line with title deeds, TMS or DMS);
• can require owners to appoint person to manage implementation of plan;
• can require owners to open a maintenance account and deposit sums in it;
• can set out arrangements for operating a maintenance account.

Purpose

The purpose is to maintain house to a reasonable standard:

• how will the local authority define this?

Assessment of plan

How will the local authority assess the plan? Points to consider (and to make owners aware of) include:

• how will the authority know if it will achieve the aim of maintaining to a reasonable standard?
• what will the plan cover?
• will the plan have discrete elements to assess?
• how often will there be things to do?
• will it require technical input to the drafting of the plan?
• will it only accept joint maintenance plans which appoint a person to manage its implementation? And whether/how to assess that person/company's suitability?

Monitoring of plan

• Does it lend itself to being monitored?
  
• For example, are there clear, measurable milestones so can identify when fall off track?
• Will the plan include a pro-forma for returns to the local authority?

Assessment

It will be good practice to tell owners what the authority will be looking for when it assesses the plan.

Owner's right to appeal

The local authority might wish to include information:

• on owner's right to appeal within 21 days;
• on when the owner can appeal (for example, if the authority varies a plan);
• on how the local authority will process appeals.

Scheme of Assistance

The authority might want to include information on:

• what support is available from the local authority;
• any other sources of information or support.

Process

It would be useful to provide information from the start about the whole process - for example:

• what happens if the owner does not submit a plan by the set date, or if that plan is unsuitable;
• how the local authority will monitor the implementation of the plan;
• the local authority's powers if the owner does not implement the plan once it is in place (including the recovery of costs).