Tenement Living

Lots of us in the Southside live in traditional Edinburgh tenements - a number of flats all accessed from a common stair. Maintenance of these tenement buildings is often quite a headache! Getting all the owners to agree to work that is needed, and getting everyone to pay their share of the cost, sometimes seems well nigh impossible, with the result that essential maintenance is not carried out. This often results in water leaking in and making homes damp, damaging interior decor, and worse still, stonework can become dangerous, allowing lumps of masonry to crash down into the street, endangering the lives of passers by.

The Scottish Government and Parliament are looking at introducing legislation to make things better, but that's going to take a while. In the meantime here are a few things you could consider

Rubbish

See our page on what to do with your rubbish.

Stair Lighting

This is an example of a problem faced by flat dwellers. The lighting in common stairs always used to be considered part of the street lighting, but recent cost cutting measures by the City of Edinburgh Council mean that is no longer true. Instead, householders in privately owned stairs are expected to meet the costs of maintaining the lights themselves.

No longer can you rely on the Council to replace faulty bulbs. Private contractors will have to be employed to do the work. If residents on a stair don't agree this could lead to dangerous situations where stairs are unlit, with the potential for accidents and crime.

If this is a problem for you, the residents on your stair need to come to an agreement as to how they are going to manage stair lighting issues, and find a contractor who can convert the lighting to LED type. In most cases the existing luminaires can be adapted to take LEDs, and once converted the running and maintenance costs will be much lower as LED lights use less electricity to produce the same amount of light, and have a much longer working life.

Some resources

The Under One Roof website is a good place to start.

Some other places to look: