Apartment block maintenance responsibility

[frontier52]

Hi, I live in a 1900 tenement house in Scotland (freehold) and I'm trying to understand what law applies to common areas maintenance? By common areas I mean stairway, gutters, shared garden etc. Is every flat enforced by law to share the cost? What should I do if I'm the only owner who gives a damn about it and all the others don't want to participate in any costs, that is they ignore my messages, emails, don't answer my phone etc. or just say they won't pay their share.
Cheers for any help.

I think you will need a scottish lawyer on this one. Do you have some obligations in your freehold title that say who is responsible? In English law that may often be the case for long leasehold flats (and commonhold although commonhold in England has not much been used so far)?

In England when you buy a property your solicitor writes a detailed report on title and the seller also has to complete forms setting out who is responsible for what so may be worth checking if you have anything like that from when you bought the place.

Whatever the legal regime the issues you mention always arise - some people really keen to spend loads of money on new things, new lifts, a roof, new guttering, expensive common parts changes as they are rich and people who can hardly afford a pot of paint wanting nothing done ever.

Technically everyone is supposed to pay for common areas but only for essential maintenance. You need to check for roofs / guttering sometimes the top flat owns the roof and gutters. Sometimes everyone.

If other people don’t agree what essential it’s really hard to enforce. I know friends where 7 flats forked out for essential works as 8th refused to pay/ was also skint so didn’t feel taking to court would work.