Commentary on Sections Support and Shelter Section 10 – Recovery of costs incurred by virtue of section 8
58.The duty to maintain support and shelter falls to the person who owns that part of the tenement. Where property is owned solely by one owner, there is a danger that a scheme decision to carry out repairs could be blocked by the other owners in the knowledge that the same repair could be insisted upon under section 8. This section seeks to prevent this. Section 10 also operates to enable a minority (even one co-owner) to carry out works for support or shelter where a majority cannot be assembled and to treat it as a scheme cost in the same way as if authorised by a scheme decision.
59.This section provides that the cost of a repair which is carried out under section 8 of this Act could be recovered from the other owners as if the repair had been carried out as part of a management scheme decision. The costs recovered would be equal to the amount that the owners would be liable for under the management scheme.