You may also discover that there are outstanding Statutory Notices on the property indicating that repairs are required. This is fairly common for older tenements in Edinburgh. Previously the City of Edinburgh Council had a system whereby they would serve a Statutory Notice on the owners of all of the flats in the tenement with details of repair work required to the building. If the owners did not arrange for the repairs to be carried out themselves then the Council would arrange for the work to be done and would split the costs between the owners of all the flats in the building. Where a Statutory Notice was outstanding when a flat was sold, the sellers would usually be liable for this and a retention would be made from the purchase price to cover the costs of the work when it was carried out.

However, in 2010 the Council stopped carrying out work under Statutory Notices except in the case of emergency. Therefore, nothing will be done unless the owners agree. In many cases, the repairs required are not carried out and the building continues to deteriorate, leaving the owners with an even bigger problem when they come to sell.

A purchaser should think seriously before buying into a repair problem that is unlikely to be resolved soon. In extreme cases, such a problem may make a flat very difficult or impossible to sell.