Section 26 - Continuing Requirements
Continuing Requirements can be imposed by verifiers or by Scottish Ministers.
When granting a building warrant or accepting a completion certificate, the verifier (Local Authority Building Standards Service) may impose a continuing requirement under Section 22 of the Building (Scotland) Act.
This imposes on a building owner a duty that must be fulfilled after the completion of the building to ensure the purposes of the building regulations are not frustrated. This is not intended to cover matters that always rely on adequate maintenance, such as the operation of lifts or the recoating of woodwork. Nor is it for matters under health and safety or fire precautions legislation, such as testing of fire alarms. In general, it is also not for matters that involve action on the part of the owner.
It is for special cases where the arrangements agreed for complying with the building regulations might be frustrated by uncontrolled changes. A typical example would be acceptance of a moveable platform for cleaning windows subject to a continuing requirement that adequate access and hard surfaces are provided and then kept clear and properly surfaced thereafter. Such continuing requirements, therefore, relate to activities or actions happening to a building element, not the building element in itself.
Scottish Ministers can also impose continuing requirements on building owners.
Ministers can include in the building regulations certain matters that apply after the building warrant and completion certificate process is complete. The requirements may even be imposed on existing buildings, whenever built. The intention is to allow Scottish Ministers to impose continuing requirements nationally.
The local authority for is responsible for the enforcement of continuous requirements, whether imposed by verifiers or by Scottish Ministers, where building owners have failed in their duty.
The local authority may serve a notice on the owner of a building requiring compliance (see section 26 of the Act for details). If, by the final specified completion date, the owner has not complied with the notice, the owner is guilty of an offence. The local authority may then carry out the necessary work to make the work comply with the specified provision and can recover the costs from the owner For further guidance see The Buildings (Recovery of Expenses) (Scotland) Act 2014. The principal Act is the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 More information is available from the Building (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and the Procedural Handbook Third Edition Version 1.4 February 2015