Maintenance of Shared Facilities

Issues that sometimes arise will usually falls into one of two categories – footing the bill when it comes to repairs which affect more than one property and the general maintenance and upkeep of shared amenities such as in student accommodation and in apartment blocks or flats.

Dealing With Repairs

In most cases where a repair job is needed which affects your own and a neighbour’s property, a shared fence having blown down for example, the cost of the replacing or repairing the fence will, more often than not, be a simple matter of both parties paying half each. However, in situations where a dispute might arise in terms of boundary lines, ownership etc. and who’s responsible for paying, it’ll usually boil down to looking at house deeds and other legal documents pertaining to your property to try and establish whose responsibility it is to pay for any repairs.

That said, it’s often not as clear cut as you might wish so it’s always better to try to share the costs equally or at least to make some kind of compromise about sharing a proportion of the costs as opposed to trying to take legal action which can often prove more expensive.

Problems with drains and gutters on a roof can even throw up more problems in that, quite often, it can involve several parties, especially if you live in terraced housing or within a block of flats. In these types of situations, if you are able to identify the source of the problem, then if repairs are needed because of someone else’s negligence, you are quite within your right as an individual, or collectively where it’s appropriate, to make the person responsible for the damage to foot the bill entirely themselves.

Examples might be where someone has blocked everybody’s drains because of items they have put down their own drains or problems where gutters have been affected on more than one property because of one person’s failure to keep their own gutters clean. Of course, they might deny being solely responsible or even accept they’re to blame at all.

In that event, you may need to seek the advice of experts within the appropriate field to come out and inspect the damage and to see if they are able to identify the cause of the problem which has ensued. If they’re not able to do that, then you’d obviously have difficulty in proving any case in court so you might have to end up sharing the cost of repairs anyway.

Maintenance Of Shared Facilities

If you live in student accommodation or an apartment block, you will probably have to bear some responsibility to the maintenance and general upkeep of any shared facilities. This might include making sure a shared kitchen or bathroom/shower room facility is cleaned each time you use it so that the next person is able to enjoy the same facilities as you have been privy to without having to clean up your mess first.

People living in apartment blocks may have a small garden area to maintain and it might be that you either take turns in making sure the garden is looking tidy and mowed in the summer. Alternatively, you might decide to ‘club’ together and employ a gardener or ‘odd job man’ to do this. Or, in some cases, one of you might decide to take full responsibility for the upkeep of shared facilities and be paid by the rest of the residents who will benefit from your efforts.

Even if you own your own property, if it’s semi-detached, you’ll also bear some responsibilities in sharing the maintenance of things like a dividing fence or mowing a lawn where the garden is not divided by a fence.

It’s also important to remember that if you are living in rented accommodation, the onus for certain repairs and maintenance is very likely to be the responsibility of your landlord, local authority/council or housing association, whichever is the most appropriate, so in this situation, it’s important to check your tenancy agreement to see who is responsible for what before shelling out on any repairs or maintenance when it might not be your responsibility to have to do that.