A TENEMENT which is more than 150 years old is being left to crumble because of a dispute over repair bills, residents claimed today.

Emergency work was carried out to the close of the water-logged building in Argyle Street by Glasgow City Council three months ago - but four weeks of torrential rain has left the B-listed tenement badly damaged.

And one owner described the work as "money down the drain" because the source of the problem, water seeping in from the roof, hasn't been tackled.

The Evening Times told on Monday how the ceiling of a street-level pub in the tenement, called 54 Below, collapsed at the corner of Argyle Street and Kelvingrove, injuring landlord David Wray.

And a family who stayed in a top-floor flat above the bar had a lucky escape when cornicing came away from the roof of 15-month-old Benjamin Masih's room, narrowly missing his cot.

Now the owner of a second-floor flat in the close next to the pub said the whole building should be condemned because it's not safe.

Sahir Ahmed said: "Something should be done immediately and the council should close the building down - it's a total nightmare.

"It's like someone turned a tap on when the water comes seeping down the tiles and into all the flats. The money the council spent on the close is money down the drain."

Mr Ahmed said he was willing to pay his share of repair bills and called on the council to force other flat owners to stump up for repairs to the tenement.

Publican Mr Wray, 38, who also runs Bar Bola on Park Street with his business partner Stephen Muirhead, 42, has been told the privately-owned building, which was built in 1855, will take hundreds of thousands of pounds to repair.

The council has a £3million budget for statutory repairs to privately-owned buildings but there's a waiting list of 500 cases across the city.

Because the tenement, built in the style of famous Glasgow architect Charles Wilson, is B-listed, planning consent would normally be required from Historic Scotland to repair the damage.

However, the council can make alterations or changes without consent if it feels the building is a danger to the public.

A council spokeswoman said: "If there's a danger to the public then we don't see it as 'money down the drain'.

Where there is an issue of public safety we can make emergency repairs and bill the owners accordingly."

Linda Thomson, a property manager at Grant and Wilson Ltd, said the factors were owed "thousands of pounds of arrears" from flat owners at 1120 Argyle Street and added everyone "wasn't willing to pay" for repairs.