Water (Scotland) Act 1980

64 Provision of supply of water to other houses

(1) It shall be the duty of the owner of every house within which there is not a sufficient supply of wholesome water for domestic purposes to provide such a supply of water in pipes within the house, unless it is not reasonably practicable to do so, and in that event, he shall, so far as not already done, provide such a supply of water immediately outside the house or as near thereto as is reasonably practicable. It shall be the duty of every islands or district council to give such notices as are necessary to secure compliance with the provisions of this subsection, and every such notice shall be served on the owner and on every person known to the council to be interested as a heritable creditor in the house and shall state the time within which the works to which it relates are to be executed.

(2) Where an islands or district council are required by subsection (1) to serve a notice on the owner of any house, they shall require such owner to furnish a written statement specifying the name and address of every person interested as a heritable creditor in the house; and if any person fails to give the council any information required by them under this subsection, or knowingly makes any misstatement with reference thereto, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £25.

(3) The owner or any person interested as a heritable creditor in the house may, within 28 days after the service of the notice required to be served under subsection (1), appeal against the notice to the sheriff, who may make such order confirming or varying or annulling the notice as seems to him proper in the circumstances.

(4) If and in so far as the appeal is based on the ground of some informality, defect or error in or in connection with the notice, the sheriff shall dismiss the appeal if he is satisfied that the informality, defect or error was not a material one.

(5) Subject to such right of appeal, if an owner on whom such a notice requiring the execution of any work is served fails to execute the work within the time thereby limited, the islands or district council—

(a) may themselves execute the work and for that purpose may exercise the like powers as a water authority may exercise under this Act for the purposes of their water undertaking, and may recover from the owner the expenses reasonably incurred by them in executing the work; or

(b) may agree with the occupier of the house that he shall execute the works, in which case, on the works being executed and paid for by the occupier, he shall be entitled to recover from the owner the expenses reasonably incurred by him in so doing, together with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent, per annum from the date of service of a demand for payment of the said expenses, or to deduct the amount of such expenses and interest from the rent of the house from time to time becoming due to the owner.

(6) Where the owners of two or more houses have failed to comply with the requirements of such notices and the islands or district council might execute the necessary works for the supply of water for each house, the council may, if it appears to them desirable and that no greater expense would be occasioned thereby, execute works for the joint supply of water for those houses, and may recover the whole or a reasonable part of the expenses incurred by them from the owners of the houses in such proportions as may be determined by the council or, in case of dispute, by arbitration.

(7) Where an islands or district council are satisfied that an owner on whom such a notice requiring the execution of any work is served is unable to comply with the requirements thereof by reason of his being unable on reasonable terms to acquire any necessary rights to take water from a suitable source or to lay pipes through any land not belonging to him or to do any other work, the council may at the expense of the owner themselves take such steps as are necessary for the execution of the work, and for that purpose may exercise the like powers as a water authority may exercise under this Act for the purposes of their water undertaking.

(8) An islands or district council may, if they think fit, contribute towards the cost of complying with any requirement made by them under the foregoing provisions of this section, and where they agree to make such a contribution the expenses shall be deemed to be the net expenses after deducting such contribution.

(9) Without prejudice to any of the foregoing provisions of this section, an owner on whom a notice given under this section has been served shall, if he fails to comply with any requirement thereof, be guilty of an offence and shall on summary conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding £25 and to a further fine not exceeding £25 for each day on which the default continues after conviction therefor.

(10) Where proceedings for the recovery of expenses incurred under this section are taken against an owner on whom a notice under this section has been served, it shall not be open to him to raise in those proceedings any question which he could have raised on an appeal under this section.

(11) In this section and in the three next following sections the expression " owner " has the same meaning as in the [1897 c. 38.] Public Health (Scotland) Act 1897:

Provided that a landholder within the meaning of the Small Landholders (Scotland) Acts 1886 to 1931 shall, for the purposes of the said sections, be deemed to be the owner of any house on his holding in respect of which he would, on the termination of his tenancy, be entitled to compensation under the said Acts.