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This page explains what common areas are and looks at how you and your neighbours can work together to maintain common areas of your building. This may help prevent the need for large, expensive repairs in the future.

What are common areas?

If you live in a flat, apartment or tenement, it's likely that you and your neighbours will share certain parts of the building that aren't within the boundaries of your flat. These are known as common areas, or common parts. Some examples include:

• the roof
• the stairs, stairwell and common close
• the lift
• the fire escape
• the gutters and downpipes
• the garden, backyard, close or drying green
• any private parking areas
• the entrances and paths leading to the entrances
• the foundations
• the external walls.

Who is responsible for maintenance of common areas?

Flat owners are usually jointly responsible for the upkeep of common areas, although this isn't always the case. Some owners may employ a property manager or factor to look after the common areas of their building.

To find out how to work out who is responsible for what, read the page on responsibility for repairs and maintenance in common areas. If you're in any doubt or if the situation isn't clear, you should get advice from a solicitor who deals with property law or conveyancing. You'll have to pay for legal advice from a solicitor so make sure you ask for a fee quote in advance.

How can I ensure the building is kept in good condition?

Although different owners may be responsible for different parts of the building, it's a good idea to try and meet up with your neighbours a few times a year to discuss maintenance of the building. If you have a good relationship with your neighbours, any problems with the common areas are more likely to be identified and sorted out quickly.

For example, you may wish to:

• devise a maintenance programme (for example, for cleaning the stairs, mowing the lawn and keeping the garden in good condition, checking the roof, walls and drains, clearing out gutters and touching up any paintwork)
• work out who will be responsible for carrying out the maintenance programme (for example, will you do this work yourselves, or will you pay someone else to do it?)
• hire a property manager or factor to take care of maintenance and repair work
• decide whether any additional repair work needs to be done
• work out how much the work will cost, how much you can afford to pay and who'll be responsible for collecting the money and paying any bills (see 'how do we pay for maintenance work' below).

The page on keeping your home in good condition lists things to look out for when inspecting your home and drawing up a maintenance plan.

If you're not sure what needs to be done, an architect or surveyor will be able to provide you with a full independent report on the condition of your property, highlighting any areas that may need work. You'll need to pay a fee for this and it could be expensive, so get some quotes beforehand. You can divide the costs out using the process set out in the tenement management scheme (see 'how do we pay for maintenance work' below).

How do I set up an owners' meeting?

There may already be an owners' group set up for your building - you can ask your neighbours about this. If your building has a property manager or factor, they may run the group and arrange meetings. In some places, however, you may find that nobody is interested in putting in the time and effort required to set up meetings of this kind. In this case, it may be up to you to set the ball rolling.

You can begin by simply putting a note through everybody's door, explaining that you want to meet up to talk about the maintenance of the building. If any of the properties are rented out, the tenants should have contact details for their landlord. If not, you can look them up in the relevant Land Register or in your council's private landlord register.

Getting hold of all the owners may be difficult but if you can get a few interested, this is a good start.

You might find that owners won't take the time and trouble to meet up until something goes wrong, for example, the roof starts leaking or cracks appear in the walls. However, you can point out in your letter that carrying out routine maintenance to the building will ensure the property keeps its value and can help prevent unexpected and expensive repair bills further down the road.

It would also be a good idea to specify in your initial letter how often you intend to have meetings - that way, people can see how much time will be involved. For example, you could hold them fortnightly, monthly or quarterly. You can always arrange more, or fewer, meetings at a later date if necessary.

What should happen at an owners' meeting?

You can arrange to meet in someone's flat, or on 'neutral ground', for example, in a community centre, café or pub. Meetings can be fairly formal, with an agenda and rules, or informal, more like a group chat.

When it comes to making decisions, your title deeds may set out what you should do. For example, your deeds may say that all the owners should vote on decisions, and that at least two-thirds of the owners must be in agreement before you can go ahead. If your deeds don't mention this, or if different owners' deeds contain conflicting information, you should use the decision making process outlined in the tenement management scheme (TMS). This is a legally binding scheme introduced by the Scottish Parliament to make it easier for owners to maintain and repair common areas.

However you end up running your meetings, make sure that you keep a written record of any decisions made, and that you notify anyone who wasn't able to attend.

How do we pay for maintenance work?

You'll also need to arrange a system for paying for joint repair and maintenance work, for example, by setting up a special maintenance account. The page on paying for common repairs has more information on this, and also explains how you can divide up the costs.

What if we want to make improvements to the building?

You and the other owners may wish to carry out improvements to your building. For example, you may want to put in a lift or carpet the hallways.

Your title deeds may specify what you and the other owners need to do in this case. If your title deeds don't mention this, you can't use the majority voting rules in the tenement management scheme (TMS) to make decisions about improvements, because the TMS only covers maintenance and repairs. Instead, you'll only be able to carry out the improvements if all the owners agree. This is to prevent owners from having changes foisted on them that they may not want or can't afford to pay for.

However, if you need to replace existing features with up-to-date materials (for example, if you want to replace lead pipes with plastic ones), this will probably count as maintenance rather than an improvement, so you will be able to use the TMS majority voting rules to get it done.

What is a development management scheme (DMS)?

If you live in a new development, there may be a development management scheme (DMS) in place. These schemes were introduced in June 2009 so are still fairly new.

The DMS is a more formal, detailed scheme than the tenement management scheme. Unlike the TMS, the rules of the scheme don't automatically apply to all developments. The DMS rules can only be used if the owner (or co-owners) of the land the development is built on has officially registered the scheme in the relevant land register for Scotland.

The Scottish Government has set out some rules that can be used by the scheme. However, the owners of the properties covered by the scheme can decide to vary these rules to suit their individual development.

The only rule that can't be changed is that all the owners in the building automatically become members of an owners' association. The owners cannot be held individually responsible for any decisions or actions made by the association. For example, if the association owes money to a tradesperson, the tradesperson cannot ask individual owners to pay it.

Provided most of the owners agree, the scheme can be varied once it is up and running, and it can also be stopped.

Find out more about the DMS.

New rules under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 introduces new rules to make sure that owners keep their properties in good condition. If your local council is concerned that you're not keeping your home in good repair, it will be able to send you a maintenance order. This is a notice instructing you to draw up a maintenance plan, outlining what you're intending to do over the next five years to keep your property in good condition.

You and the other owners in your building may be required to draw up a joint maintenance plan, to show how you'll manage the upkeep of common areas.

Find out more about maintenance orders.

Maintenance orders were introduced in April 2009, but the council don't have to start using them until April 2010. Check your council's website to see if maintenance orders have been introduced in your area yet.