Edinburgh couple criticise ‘exploitative’ £50 council charge for statutory repair notice details to progress flat sale

An Edinburgh couple has criticised an “exploitative” £50 council charge for home sellers to obtain details of statutory repair notices (SRNs) served on shared buildings they do not owe any money for.

Kevin McPadden said he and his fiancé, Paulina, ended up paying the fee to enquire about an SRN served in 2002 to get their Leith flat sale moving, with buyers often requesting this official documentation to confirm there are no outstanding debts.

Edinburgh City Council said they charge for the SRN report to recoup the costs involved in producing them and, in this case, fees are still owed for shared repairs to the tenement building which is why the notice is still registered.

But Mr McPadden, who is moving from Yardheads in Leith to Haymarket, said: “It’s like a back door tax on homeowners, for something the council has put in place.

“I can almost understand a small admin fee but £50 reeks of profit.”

Edinburgh’s statutory repair system allowed the council to force private property owners - often in tenements - to ensure repair work was completed. If agreement was not reached between homeowners, the council would instruct contractors to do the work and recover the costs from them.

But the scheme was suspended in 2011 amid claims that bribes had been offered by contractors and that owners were being overcharged for work which was occasionally substandard and often did not need to be done.

Figures obtained by the Edinburgh Evening News under freedom of information laws in 2019 showed more than 2,000 homeowners disputed work carried out on their properties.

The statutory repair notice was served on the building in Yardheads, Leith, in 2002. Pic: Kevin McPadden

Under a replacement scheme, the council now issues SRNs only for emergency work - but there are still many SRNs affecting properties that were issued before the council’s change in policy that have not been dealt with.

Mr McPadden, a 29-year-old IT analyst, said their solicitor flagged the SRN on the building in Yardheads during the flat selling process. After contacting a local councillor for help, the couple were told the notice was 19 years old and that they had no outstanding debt.

Mr McPadden said: “The position we were in as sellers was going to the buyer and saying, ‘are you happy with what we have been told?’ but if they say ‘no,’ we have to get the official report by paying the £50.

“It’s just a money maker for them (the council) and I think it’s quite exploitative because of the level of power they hold to say there is not a lot we can do.

“In order to get the house move going, we ended up paying the £50. But it’s the principle that is wrong here.”

The £50 charge (including VAT) for SRNs was introduced on February 20 last year. Historically, Property Conservation charged £40 to search for the provision of financial information relating to outstanding statutory notices debt – but this stopped around the year 2000.

An Edinburgh City Council spokesperson said: “We charge for the SRN report to recoup the costs involved to produce them.

“Fees are still owed for repairs to the tenement building, which is why the notice is still registered as outstanding for it. It may be that some property owners have already paid their share.”

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