Sheriff Court case in which Mr McWatters sought the revocation or suspension of a Demolition Order over his flat on Bruce Street in Port Glasgow.

Background
When Mr McWatters bought the flat, in September 2011, it was already subject to a Closing Order. Then, in August 2012, the Council made a Demolition Order in respect of the whole building of which Mr McWatters’ flat formed part (as part of wider regeneration plans for the area).

Closing Orders, which prohibit the use of a house for human habitation, can be made by a local authority[1] where the authority is satisfied that any house (forming part of a larger building) does not meet a tolerable standard[2] and that it ought to be demolished. The owner of the house is then able to offer an undertaking[3] to the local authority that it will bring the house up to a tolerable standard. The local authority can then (if it accepts the undertaking) issue a suspension order suspending the Closing Order or, alternatively, it can issue a Demolition Order. After a Demolition Order has been granted, it can only be revoked if the whole building is brought up to standard.

In this case Mr McWatters argued that he had given undertakings to the Council to bring the whole building up to a tolerable standard and that they had unreasonably refused the undertakings.

Decision
However, the sheriff found that Mr McWatters’ plans for bringing the property up to standard were lacking in detail and costings, and despite the fact that the Demolition Order could only be revoked if the whole building were to be brought up to tolerable standard, he had failed to prove that he had the authority of the other owners in the building authorising him to proceed with a renovation at an open-ended cost on their behalf. As such, Mr McWatters had failed to show that he is was a position financially or practically to complete a renovation of the whole building and his plans were found not only to be wholly lacking in specification and detail but also wholly lacking in credibility.

The sheriff also found that McWatters failed to provide a good reason for interfering with the Council’s decision to demolish the property in support of their regeneration plan, noting in particular that Mr McWatters had failed to take steps to bring his own flat up to standard between purchasing it in September 2011 and the granting of the Demolition Order in August 2012 and that he had also failed to bring the whole building up to standard during the period after the granting of the Demolition Order when he claimed to have the authority of the other owners to do so.

The full judgement is available from Scottish Courts here.

All of our property and conveyancing case summaries are contained in the LKS Property and Conveyancing Casebook here.

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[1] Under s114 of The Housing (Scotland) Act 1987.

[2] For the local authority to proceed by way of a Closing Order there must also be other houses in the building which do meet the tolerable standard.

[3] Under s117 of the 1987 Act.