Roof repairs add to bill at condemned block of flats

COUNCIL chiefs already under fire over plans to spend £9,000 renovating a flat due for demolition now look set to spend thousands more fixing the roof of the virtually empty block.

Landlord Jim Adie, who rented the two-bedroom flat in Muirhouse to the city council under a scheme to help house the homeless, said he contacted the council after learning that the roof had been stripped by thieves, then received an e-mail from an official asking him to organise for the necessary repairs to be carried out.

But since almost all the empty flats in the block are owned by the council, most of the bill would have to be met by the authority.

Mr Adie said: "This has got absolutely bizarre. The council is asking me to repair the roof of a building it wants to demolish. Bearing in mind that the council owns 95 per cent of the block, if such repairs go ahead the tax payer will end up paying tens of thousands of pounds."

The Evening News revealed earlier this week how up to 9,000 could be spent renovating Mr Adie's flat after it was trashed by the last tenant because under the leasing scheme the council is obliged to return the property to the owner in its original condition.

The council has offered Mr Adie 5,000 compensation in lieu of renovation but he is reluctant to accept that because he is already battling the council to get the market value for his property before it is bulldozed.

Mr Adie said he was shocked to receive the latest council e-mail asking him to "ensure appropriate repairs are completed to the affected area".

He said: "If it was any other flat, what I would have to do is contact the other owners in the block and ask them if they are willing to repair the roof voluntarily and if not we would go to the council and ask for a statutory notice. If water is flooding in, it becomes an emergency notice and the council would organise the work and split the cost between all the owners - but that's them because they own about 95 per cent of the flats."

"If I was to be as daft as they're being and phone up and ask them for the work to be done they might just be mad enough to go ahead and do it, for no other reason than to dump me with a repair bill."

A council spokesman said: "We are still in discussions with Mr Adie over a number of outstanding issues."

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