Refurbishment management for buy-to-let investors

Scotland · Refurbishment · 9 min read · Published 4 October 2026

In short: we are Gauci Magri & Partners, and we manage buy-to-let refurbishments in Glasgow, East Kilbride and across the Scottish central belt for owners who cannot get to site. Before any work starts, you and we agree what is being done, what it will cost and when it should finish. The job is then run through contractors we already know, and the property is handed back to you with its certificates. A privately rented home in Scotland has to meet the Repairing Standard from the first day of the tenancy, so that is the standard we plan to. This page is about Scottish property only. We are a property firm, and we do not give financial or tax advice.

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Who manages a refurbishment if I live somewhere else?

We manage it for you. Many of the owners we work for are not in Scotland, and a good number are not in the UK. They cannot let a plumber in, look at a stained ceiling, or stand in the kitchen and decide where the boiler goes. Somebody has to, and it needs to be somebody who answers to the owner and not to the builder.

That is the job. We agree with you what is being done and what it should cost. We bring in the trades, keep an eye on the work, deal with the council and the neighbours where that is needed, and check the finished job before it is signed off. You make the decisions that cost money, and we do the legwork.

We have been refurbishing property to let since 2015, and in most projects we have our own capital in the deal as well. That sets the standard we work to. What we want at the end is a home that lets quickly to a good tenant and does not come back with a repair every other month. The cheapest finish will not do that, and the dearest one is not needed.

The photographs are for illustration. They are not of our own projects.

What does a rented home in Scotland have to meet?

The rule for a privately rented home in Scotland is the Repairing Standard. It sits in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, and it binds the landlord from the day a tenant moves in until the day they leave. So when we plan a refurbishment for letting, we go down this list first and worry about colours afterwards.

Sources: Scottish Government, "Repairing Standard: statutory guidance for private landlords", 31 January 2024; "Fire and smoke alarms: the law", updated 14 August 2024; SSI 2026/173. The gas check comes from the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.

Older buildings have the furthest to travel. In the Scottish House Condition Survey for 2024, 65% of private rented homes had disrepair to a critical element. Among homes of every tenure built before 1919 it was 68%, and in 32% the disrepair was urgent. Scottish Water adds that a house built before 1970 has a higher chance of lead pipework. The deadlines a landlord then has to meet on damp and mould are in Awaab's Law for private landlords in Scotland.

How is a refurbishment budget set?

We set a refurbishment budget from the building itself, never from a rate per square metre. If there is a Home Report we read that first, and then we go round the property a room at a time. What comes out is a written schedule: every job on its own line, with the finish and the price beside it. The trades price from that schedule and from nothing else.

Three items are missing from most owners' first budgets, and we add them. There is the work the standard demands whether or not anyone will ever notice it: the alarms, the electrical report, the gas check. There is the flat's share of any common repair, and in a tenement that can be the roof. And there is an allowance for what nobody can see until a floor is lifted or a wall is opened.

You will not find a typical cost per flat on this page. We looked for a published Scottish benchmark we would be happy to stand behind and did not find one, and we would sooner give you a priced schedule for your own property than an average for somebody else's. As for which jobs tend to pay for themselves, we have written that up in where refurbishment money actually adds value.

How do you stop a budget overrunning?

We stop a budget overrunning mostly by deciding things early. Nobody picks up a tool until the schedule and the price are agreed. If the builder then finds a job that is not on the schedule, they price it, we send you the figure, and it does not get done until you say so.

Some surprises cannot be planned away. Asbestos is the usual one. The Health and Safety Executive says it may be part of any building that was built or refurbished before 2000. Where the work will disturb the fabric of the building, a refurbishment survey has to find it before structural work begins. Rot under a bath and tired wiring behind new sockets are not far behind. The allowance in the budget is there for exactly these.

What we will not do is save money by skipping the paperwork. Starting work without a building warrant, when the job needed one, is an offence. It can also lose you the reduced rate of VAT on a job that would otherwise have qualified.

Which jobs need permission before they start?

Fewer jobs need permission than people fear. This is how it falls for the jobs we see most.

Sources: mygov.scot, "Getting a building warrant", 24 November 2025; Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004, schedule 3; Glasgow City Council, "Window Replacements" and its window design guide; Historic Environment Scotland; Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004, section 4 and schedule 1; Under One Roof.

A warrant lasts three years. Once the work is done you send in a completion certificate, and the council has 14 days to accept or reject it. Glasgow City Council says it aims to respond to a warrant application within 20 days, and that the time taken depends on how complicated the job is and on the quality of the information sent in.

Tenements bring one more wrinkle. If a repair to a shared part is needed for the flat to meet the standard and most of the other owners refuse, the flat does not fail the standard for that reason. It is still a flat with a problem roof, though, which is why we ask about the neighbours before you buy. Our property sourcing in Glasgow page explains those checks.

Who is responsible for safety on the job?

More of the responsibility for safety sits with the owner than most people expect. Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, a landlord having work done on a rental property is not treated as a domestic client, and the HSE guidance says so in as many words. The client duties therefore stay with you and do not pass to the builder. They include using contractors who are competent and allowing enough time and money for the work to be done safely. Where more than one contractor is on the job, the client also appoints a principal designer and a principal contractor. Helping you meet those duties is part of what we do.

Two trades are restricted, one by law and one by guidance. Gas work can only be done by a business on the Gas Safe Register. The electrical report is the other one. The Scottish guidance takes membership of SELECT, NICEIC or NAPIT as proof an electrician is competent, so we use electricians who belong to one of them.

How long does a refurbishment take?

The size of the flat tells you less about timing than three questions do. Does the job need a warrant? Do the neighbours have to agree to anything? And what turns up once the work has started? A repaint with new flooring and a like-for-like kitchen is a very different job from one that is waiting on the council.

You get a timetable along with the scope, and we tell you when it moves. We are not going to put a number of weeks on this page. Any number would be a guess about a property we have not seen.

What does refurbishment management cost?

Our fee for managing the works is agreed in writing before anything starts. It is separate from the contractors' prices, and you see those in full.

On VAT, most refurbishment is charged at the standard rate. HMRC allows a reduced rate of 5% for renovating a dwelling that has not been lived in for two years or more, and for some conversions that change the number of dwellings. Scaffolding hire, professional fees, carpets and fitted bedroom furniture stay at the standard rate either way. Ask your accountant how this applies to you. We are not tax advisers.

What about energy ratings?

Scotland has no minimum energy rating for private lets in force today. In 2025 the Scottish Government consulted on a standard equivalent to band C, for new tenancies from 2028 and for every let by the end of 2033, with spending capped at £10,000. No regulations have been made. In August 2026 it also announced that the new-style certificates the standard relies on would be put back to 30 April 2028.

Our own view, for what it is worth: when a wall is already open or a boiler is being replaced anyway, that is the cheap moment to insulate and upgrade. The position in England and Wales is in the 2030 energy standard for rented homes.

How a managed refurbishment runs

Refurbishment can be used on its own, after sourcing, or before letting. Once the property is ready, we introduce you to one of the letting agents we work with, each of them on the Scottish Letting Agent Register, and that agent lets and manages it: see property management in Glasgow and in East Kilbride. Examples of the kind of project we take on are on our portfolio page, and the BRRR strategy guide explains how a refurbishment fits a refinance.

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