The Missing Shares Scheme, launched in 2021, aims to make it easier for people who live in tenements or blocks of flats to organise essential repairs to communal areas, where one or more of the owners cannot or is unwilling to pay.

If left unresolved, issues like water leaks, wet/dry rot and crumbling stonework not only adversely affect the lives of homeowners and tenants but often pose a wider safety risk in terms of falling masonry, slipped slates or unsafe stairways.

Repair issues that are ignored can lead to enforcement action being required, which is costly for both homeowners and the council.

However, when essential repairs are needed it can often be difficult to gain permissions from all owners. In these cases the Missing Shares Scheme can step in to pay a missing share, which is then recovered from the owner either through a flexible monthly repayment plan or via a repayment charge attached to the title of the property, recouped at the point of sale.

This allows the essential work to be carried out.

The report to be considered by the Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee on Wednesday 19th June outlines how successful the two-year pilot has been:

• Of the 180 enquiries received regarding issues with communal repairs, 70% have been resolved by our Missing Shares Officer and repairs have been able to progress without any financial intervention from the council.
• £800,000 worth of communal repairs have been undertaken without the need to apply the missing shares process. This significant investment in local building maintenance has reduced the need for intervention by other council services.
• Only 14 missing share applications (6 complete, 8 pending) have been required. The 14 applications involve 125 properties and the missing shares funding, provided by PKC currently totals £144,000.
• However, the total value of the works achieved by private property owners as a result of this financial intervention is well over £1,070,000.
• The level of communal repair improvements has come at a small council spend of £40k for staffing, and the £144,000 in missing shares which is recoverable income through a repayment process.

Councillors will be asked to extend the scheme for a further three years, after which time a decision will be take on viability of the service in the long term.

Extending the scheme would allow an informed review using five years of data to determine the future long-term benefits, potential financial impacts and funding structure for the service going forward.