Group 7 is on support and shelter: maintenance of parts in common ownership. Amendment 9, in the name of the minister, is in a group on its own.

Section 8(1) provides that the owner of any part of a tenement building is obliged to maintain his property if it provides support or shelter to any other part of the tenement. That is a restatement and replacement of an existing rule under the common-law doctrine of common interest. Section 8(1) imposes a duty on each and all of the owners to look after, for example, the roof, but does not permit any one pro indiviso owner—which to you and me means co-owner—to maintain it. If the roof is common property, the co-owner needs the consent of all the other owners, unless the repair is a necessary one. Amendment 9 will allow a co-owner to carry out maintenance to common property without the consent of the other owners in order to comply with section 8.

I move amendment 9.

Amendment 9 agreed to.