The app will create a digital version of a tenement and will allow users to produce reports on issues they are facing and send them out to a surveyor or trade to get a survey or quotation.
The 鈥榲irtual tenement app鈥� is designed to make it easier for residents living in shared properties to keep their buildings in good condition. The product, unveiled yesterday, was one of the successful entrants to the Civtech Challenge, a Scottish government programme aimed at harnessing entrepreneurial tech innovation. This year, 10 challenges were set, with 14 companies selected to join the digital accelerator programme.
Novoville, the tech company developing the app jointly with the Council, joined staff from the local authority to demonstrate how it will work to an invited audience of industry experts. The app will allow residents to communicate with each other when progressing repairs and general maintenance for buildings they jointly own.
Each property owner will have access to this information online in a secure closed group making it easier for people to make quicker decisions and sign up to work that may need to be done on a property they partly own.
The original challenge set in the Civtech programme by the council was - 鈥楬ow can we use technology to manage the property condition of communal areas in privately owned tenements?鈥�
The app will now be tested in the market and it is planned to be rolled out for general use by the end of the summer.聽
Councillor Alasdair Rankin, convener of the council鈥檚 finance and resources committee, said: 鈥淓dinburgh has around 170,000 tenement flats and other shared buildings with multiple owners. Many of these buildings are still in need of urgent repair. This app will make it much easier for owners to engage and take responsibility for this.
鈥淓dinburgh is already leading the way in this area. Our Shared Repairs Team is doing a fantastic job and is a member of the parliamentary working group on this issue. They help people who live in shared buildings through the steps they need to take to carry out repairs to their properties properly.
鈥淭he app takes this a step further. It鈥檚 about us making use of the legislation that we have so owners can communicate with each other on an instant digital platform to make it easier for them to keep their buildings in a good state of repair. I鈥檝e been really impressed by the way our staff recognised the need for this product and rose to the challenge using the Civtech Challenge to produce this innovative app with Novoville.鈥�
Novoville business development director Louis Daillencourt said: 鈥淐ivTech is a unique opportunity for us to get to the bottom of a local government issue, and design a game-changing solution to it. What鈥檚 more, the City of Edinburgh Council has been excellent at supporting us to understand their requirements, and we鈥檙e really proud of what we鈥檝e built. The sky鈥檚 the limit for a service like this one in a sector like building maintenance.鈥�
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
