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Communal repairs: keeping homeowners updated

A communal repair in a Scottish tenement or development is rarely a one-to-one job. A report comes in about a roof, a close, an external wall or a common stair. A contractor has to be asked for a quote. If the cost is above the authority in the written statement of services, the owners have to be consulted. Then the work is instructed, the group has to be told how it is progressing, and the cost has to be recharged in line with the title deeds.

None of those messages is difficult. Together they are what fills the week: an owner who has not responded to a consultation, a job with no progress note, a final invoice that has not been explained.

Lorework is an AI coworker for that work. It works through the web systems you already use, on its own computer. The wider coworker model for property factors is set out on the property factors page. This page is about communal repairs. It is written for factors in Scotland, because the Act, the Code of Conduct and the tribunal path are Scottish. It is not a letting-agent repairs page, and it does not use the Letting Agent Code of Practice.

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A common-area report is the start of a many-to-one job

mygov.scot (last updated 22 August 2025) is plain about what "common areas" usually means in a tenement: the roof; the stairs, close and fire escape; and the external walls and foundations. A tenement, in that guidance, is a building of two or more related flats divided from each other horizontally, and the definition includes modern blocks, four-in-a-block or cottage flats, converted houses and traditional tenements. If the building has a property factor, the factor manages repairs and maintenance, but owners still need to make decisions with their neighbours in some cases.

The Property Factors Code of Conduct is the duty that sits on top of that. Section 6 requires a factor to have procedures that allow homeowners to notify matters requiring repair, maintenance or attention. That is the first admin step: the report is logged, and the owners are not left wondering whether it has been received.

Quotes, consultation and how the cost is shared

Once a report is in, the next steps are usually a look at the work and a quote. Section 6.6 of the Code requires a factor to have arrangements to consider a range of options on repair and, where appropriate, to recommend professional advice. The cost of the work must be balanced with other factors such as likely quality and longevity, and the factor must be able to demonstrate how and why a contractor was appointed, including where it decided not to carry out a competitive tender or use in-house staff. That information must be made available if a homeowner asks. Section 6.9 adds that documentation relating to any tendering or selection process, excluding commercially sensitive information, must also be made available on request.

Whether the factor can instruct the work at once depends on the written statement of services and on the titles. Section 1 of the Code requires the statement to set out, where applicable, any level of delegated authority — for example financial thresholds for instructing works, and the situations in which the factor may act without further consultation. It must also set out the proportion, as a percentage or a fraction, of the charges for common works and services that each homeowner is responsible for. That share is likely to be set out in the title deeds.

Section 2, on communication and consultation, is the consultation step that often sits in front of a larger common repair. A factor must have a procedure to consult all homeowners and seek their consent, in line with the deed of condition or the agreed contract, before providing work or services that will incur charges or fees beyond the core service. The exceptions are an agreed level of delegated authority, in writing, to incur costs up to a threshold, or to act without further approval in certain situations, such as emergencies. That written procedure must be available if a homeowner asks.

How the cost is shared is not a figure a factor invents. mygov.scot tells owners to check their title deeds for their responsibilities, how decisions are made, and how maintenance costs are split and paid. If the deeds do not say, are unclear, or contradict a neighbour's deeds, mygov.scot says the Tenement Management Scheme in Schedule 1 of the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 can be used. In that guidance, all owners generally pay an equal share, unless the work is only for a part used by some owners, or the floor area of the biggest flat is more than one and a half times that of the smallest. If the title deeds are clear, they must be followed. The Housing and Property Chamber's property factors FAQ makes the same point: common repairs are repairs to common parts for which owners have a joint responsibility, and the factor should have checked the titles or the management scheme and included each owner's share in the written statement of services.

The admin around that step is specific: issuing the consultation when the quote is above the delegated-authority threshold, chasing owners who have not responded, and keeping a clear note of the share that will be recharged, as the written statement and the titles already set it out.

Instruction, progress updates and close-out

When the work can be instructed, Section 6.4 of the Code requires inspections and repairs to be arranged in an appropriate timescale, and homeowners to be informed of the progress of the work, including estimated timescales for completion — unless the factor has agreed with the group a cost threshold below which job-specific progress reports are not required. If work is cancelled, homeowners should be told in a reasonable timescale, including what happens next and what will happen to any money already collected. If requested, the factor must continue to liaise with contractors, within its authority to act, to remedy defects in inadequate work it has organised.

The written statement has to have set target times for taking action on routine and emergency repairs. Section 2 also expects the factor to respond to enquiries within the timescales in the statement, and to keep the homeowner informed if it cannot respond within the agreed time. The factor must take all reasonable steps to ensure its registration number appears on its written communications. That duty is in the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011, and mygov.scot describes the same step for registered factors.

Close-out is part of the same job. Section 3 of the Code, on financial obligations, requires a factor to give homeowners, in writing at least once a year, a detailed financial statement showing a breakdown of charges and a detailed description of the activities and works carried out which are charged for. Under section 1, the written statement has to set out the timing and frequency of billing, how bills are received, and how payments are collected. Homeowners' funds must be kept distinct from the factor's own funds. The recharge on a communal repair should therefore be explainable: what the work was, what it cost, and how each owner's share was arrived at, in line with the titles and the statement.

A thin file — a report with no acknowledgement, a consultation with no follow-up, a job with no progress note, or a charge with no breakdown — is what the next step looks like when a complaint arrives. Every factor must have a written complaints process. mygov.scot tells homeowners to follow that process in writing, and to keep copies. If they are not satisfied, they can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber). The application is free. The tribunal will only accept it once the factor's complaints process has been completed, and the homeowner must include copies of the complaints, any responses, and a copy of the written statement of services if they have one. For issues on or after 16 August 2021, the form is C2.

That is a different application from a letting-agent Code of Practice case, even though both are heard in the same Chamber. We have written about Housing and Property Chamber applications in a Scottish letting agency. The forum is related; the duties, the documents and the form are not the same.

What an AI coworker does on a communal repair

Your team works with Lorework in chat. You can require approval before it writes or submits anything. Follow-ups, checks and owner updates can run as scheduled, recurring tasks.

Typical starting bottlenecks on a communal repair are:

• Acknowledging an owner report, and logging it against the block or development.
• Sending the consultation message when the quote is above the firm's delegated-authority threshold, with a follow-up until owners have responded.
• Progress updates the Code expects, including estimated timescales, and a note if work is cancelled, including what happens to money already collected.
• Close-out messages and the billing explanation the written statement already describes, with the property factor registered number on documents issued to homeowners.
• Recurring checks, such as a weekly sweep of open communal repairs with no recent owner update.

Lorework does not inspect the building, decide whether works need consultation, instruct contractors, set or change an owner's cost share, or handle the firm's complaints process or a tribunal application. Those stay with the firm. It takes on the admin around that work.

How you teach it the way your firm works

You do not have to write a technical specification. Your team teaches Lorework your procedures and templates, in chat, the way you would brief a new starter — a report acknowledgement, a consultation message, a progress update, a close-out bill explanation. You can ask it in chat, or set recurring work on a schedule.

It works in the web systems you already use, on its own computer. There is no need to rip out the systems you already run. The property factor registered number still has to appear on documents issued to homeowners, in the way the firm already does it.

How a firm starts

Start with one routine job, such as the update loop on open communal repairs or the consultation follow-up when a quote is above the delegated-authority threshold, not a wholesale change of tools. Add the procedures and templates Lorework should follow. A 30-minute demo is enough to walk through that job and see how Lorework would take it on.

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Related reading

• AI coworker for property factors in Scotland
• An AI coworker for service businesses
• The cost of a Housing and Property Chamber application in a Scottish letting agency

Sociotechnical Limited (SC712040).

Related

• AI coworker
• An AI coworker for property factors in Scotland
• The cost of a Housing and Property Chamber application for a Scottish letting agency

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