Factor fees

[Carl Weathers]

Anyone here have experience of dealing with factor companies?

 

If so, how do you find them? I'm interested as a flat I'm looking at has a Factor charge and I've never dealt with them before.

 

i foolishly searched on google and seen a few complaints!

[Budgie.]

New house we're moving into has a factor fee. We have to pay a ?100 deposit then ?11 a month for upkeep of grass areas and the playpark.

[Konrad von Carstein]

?50 /month Hacking & Paterson - service = meh ANYTHING out of the ordinary means charges (usually WTF)

 

I think as factored developments mature then the residents have the opportuniy to influence charges.

[Carl Weathers]

My Factor would be Charles White.

 

?55 a month plus a float charge of around ?220. You also pay building insurance to them (not sure if you have to use their insurance legally or not).

[Konrad von Carstein]

I also have to use thier building insurance - which seems restrictive to say the least.

[Big D]

Be very wary. Check if the property deeds outline the factors' responsibilities. Not always a good thing as they can use them to stifle change which doesn't make them money. You also have to put their fees on the home reports required to sell houses, which can depress the asking price. You can wade through this stuff if you like, but probably better to go and ask the advice of some of the people who already pay them. Wish i had done that before my 5 year (and counting) fight with Speirs Gumley.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/02/3691

[Sooperstar]

My Factor would be Charles White.

 

?55 a month plus a float charge of around ?220. You also pay building insurance to them (not sure if you have to use their insurance legally or not).

 

They were the factors in my old rented flat. I only know cos they sent me a letter complaining about noise, most of which the neighbours had fabricated.

[Carl Weathers]

Be very wary. Check if the property deeds outline the factors' responsibilities. Not always a good thing as they can use them to stifle change which doesn't make them money. You also have to put their fees on the home reports required to sell houses, which can depress the asking price. You can wade through this stuff if you like, but probably better to go and ask the advice of some of the people who already pay them. Wish i had done that before my 5 year (and counting) fight with Speirs Gumley.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/02/3691

 

Cheers - I will look over that tomorrow.

 

Have you had issues with your Factor?

[Jambo1874]

Bane of my life are the blimming factors fees. Never the same price and this time was ?386 for a quarter (also hacking and paterson). One of the reasons so expensive is there is a lift in my block and that fair ramps up the charges. This also includes the buildings insurance.

 

Where I live pretty much everything is dictated by the factor's and also in the deeds - no satellite dishes, no clothes hanging over balconies etc.

[N User]

Just moved out of a Charles White place.

They were horrific.

It was only ?20 a month but CW would regularly find other ways to get your money

 

Somebody in the block of flats never paid some money ten years ago? You're paying that.

 

They're painting a couple of doors and bollards - that'll be ?1600 for 8 flats (with a total of 2 doors and 5 bollards)

 

 

God forbid something actually needs fixed - they'll spend ages before sending somebody out.

Stair roof was leaking. Took them weeks before somebody came out - during which time it had got considerably worse.

It took another few weeks before anything was done about it- again whilst the damage got worse and the cost more.

[cosanostra]

Had factors for the last 10 years and they're a complete pain in the ass.

They charge about ?100 a quarter although that does include buildings insurance. I'm not sure what else it is exactly that they do. They seem to decide when redecoration of internal communal areas requires doing and then they send us the bill. Seems like a an organised protection racket to me but not sure there's much that can be done about them.

[Craigieboy]

I do work for the factor mentioned here. It's regular weekly work. They take their time paying yet I hear they aren't too slow about taking the payments from residents.

 

I always feel they charge far too much. They pay the cleaner and gardener regularly but other than that they have little outlay. And when you take into account all the payments they take from the flats, they must be raking it in

 

And they do take months and months for things like roof repairs etc.

 

Rip off.

[2NaFish]

robbing *******s.

 

Take money to do next to nothing. They get their mates in to do nothing jobs for ridiculous fees. As far as i can see there is no regulation of them whatsoever which means they are staffed by a mixture of crooks and people who dont live in the real world.

 

Case in point - moved in to a new flat about 6 months ago. Wanted sky and needed to get a dish put on the roof. Roof access was impossible as it was locked. After asking all the tenants i discovered nobody has seen a key to the roof since the little old lady who used to be on the top floor snuffed it. During this time, everyone in the building has been getting billed to have the gutters done, a job which is impossible.

 

I badword hate factors.

[jambo_]

Find out if there is a so called residents association that exists within the block your considering moving into. My previous experience of these groups are there full of snotty nosed neighbours who have to vito every single little thing that you contact the factor about.

 

Your neighbours when moving into a communal property can be more trouble than the factors in my experience. Especially if some have lived in the their properties for a long time and think they own the whole fecking place.

 

If your serious about renting/buying a flat in a block of flats - chap the doors of some of the neighbours and ask them about the factors and you'll also get an idea of what their like.

[conn artist]

Had factors for the last 10 years and they're a complete pain in the ass.

They charge about ?100 a quarter although that does include buildings insurance. I'm not sure what else it is exactly that they do. They seem to decide when redecoration of internal communal areas requires doing and then they send us the bill. Seems like a an organised protection racket to me but not sure there's much that can be done about them.

 

similar to the flat I have in Glasgow. ?156 a quarter + any additonal work that needs done. That used to be ?90 when I bought it in December 2007. They constantly say stuff needs done which normally does not like replacing perfectly good gates with almost identical ones or replacing the sky dish for no reason as it works fine. I am paying for internal redecoration again. They say it needs done every 4 years as part of the deeds but it was only done in late 2009 and I remember this vividly as I bought a new bike then and marked the wall in the common carrying it into the flat a few days after the paint was applied. I challenged this and was told it was last done in 2007 before I bought the flat. It is a total rip. The factors is spiers gumley BTW . crooks.

[Carl Weathers]

Just moved out of a Charles White place.

They were horrific.

It was only ?20 a month but CW would regularly find other ways to get your money

 

Somebody in the block of flats never paid some money ten years ago? You're paying that.

 

They're painting a couple of doors and bollards - that'll be ?1600 for 8 flats (with a total of 2 doors and 5 bollards)

 

 

God forbid something actually needs fixed - they'll spend ages before sending somebody out.

Stair roof was leaking. Took them weeks before somebody came out - during which time it had got considerably worse.

It took another few weeks before anything was done about it- again whilst the damage got worse and the cost more.

 

Doesn't sound good. How much were u paying on top roughly? I think the ?55 I will be paying is already far too much!

[scots civil war]

dirty robbing *******s they are

 

ross and liddell seem to have a bit goin on in edinburgh....me sisters gaff in tolbooth wynd,leith had their mark on it

 

fees were around 90 squid per month,she got out pronto

 

[Craigieboy]

 

Reading this is like chatting to all my customers.

 

Maybe I should start my own factoring agency.

 

[Cow]

I do a lot of gardening work for one of the factors mentioned above and the customers on most of the sites don't want to pay factoring fees. The bottom line though is if it was left to the residents to organise themselves then the chances are nothing would get done and most folk wouldn't pay.

 

I actually find the factors very difficult to deal with and would hate to have to deal with hacking and Paterson as a resident.

[The People's Chimp]

?50 /month Hacking & Paterson - service = meh ANYTHING out of the ordinary means charges (usually WTF)

 

I think as factored developments mature then the residents have the opportuniy to influence charges.

 

Aka Hacket and Paterson are roasters, looked after my tenement flat in shawlands and have a tendency to always incur charges from their preferred contractors - new locks, tile grouting, door fixed, plumbing works etc on a regular basis - and while I'm not suggesting it's a mutually beneficial arrangement between them, I imagine the Christmas hampers are very generous.

 

Their costs are generally about ?50 a month.

 

Moved into a new place with slightly higher fees, but we have a lift etc. Despite the aforementioned mob of raspers I wouldn't touch a new build without a factor and probably would think again about any flat that didn't have one. I've seen the state of some new developments in Glasgow where the factors sacked the building as hardly any of the owners (absentee landlords/people over stretching their budgets with 110% mortgages from the height of the property boom/party flats) were paying the fees, and these flats which are about 5/6 years old and originally sold for a fortune are absolute dumps.

 

Just to explain why even though I agree with all of the above posts about factors being robbing ****s I'd still use them - if you get a leaking roof, try forcing 10 other people to come up with the money to repair it, without forcing their hand through a factor. Impossible.

[Say What Again]

Just moved out of a Charles White place.

They were horrific.

It was only ?20 a month but CW would regularly find other ways to get your money

 

Somebody in the block of flats never paid some money ten years ago? You're paying that.

 

They're painting a couple of doors and bollards - that'll be ?1600 for 8 flats (with a total of 2 doors and 5 bollards)

 

 

God forbid something actually needs fixed - they'll spend ages before sending somebody out.

Stair roof was leaking. Took them weeks before somebody came out - during which time it had got considerably worse.

It took another few weeks before anything was done about it- again whilst the damage got worse and the cost more.

 

Absolutely this.

 

My estate just voted at an EGM to bin them. Costs - and ludicrously expensive ones at that - used to regularly appear on the quarterly invoices for 'work' that had been carried out. Things like sending down their odd job man to repair a lock then charging a massively inflated fee for calling out a 'locksmith', and appointing one of their staff to oversee the painting of the stair. That was something like ?150. To do what? Pop down on Friday, look at the stair and decide, yep, it's been painted, then bugger off again.

 

They'll hound you for cash too but heaven help you if you're ever due money from them. I had to make a claim on the block insurance last year, it was only around ?400. The insurance company paid out their share days after the work had been completed, leaving Charles White owing me the ?250 excess (which I had to pay the joiner out of my own pocket). Without one word of a lie, I waited 6 months on it. 6 ******* months!! I was fobbed off, lied to, ignored, told I'd be called back, had to email them the claim number about 3 times because they kept misplacing it, passed round about 5 different people who were 'dealing' with it. I was seriously considering going up one night and putting a brick through the shop window, they ****ed me off that much.

 

Good luck with them if you move in OP. I've never, ever, came across a more shambolic farce of an outfit, and most likely never will.

 

Bunch of ******* *****.

[Carl Weathers]

Absolutely this.

 

My estate just voted at an EGM to bin them. Costs - and ludicrously expensive ones at that - used to regularly appear on the quarterly invoices for 'work' that had been carried out. Things like sending down their odd job man to repair a lock then charging a massively inflated fee for calling out a 'locksmith', and appointing one of their staff to oversee the painting of the stair. That was something like ?150. To do what? Pop down on Friday, look at the stair and decide, yep, it's been painted, then bugger off again.

 

They'll hound you for cash too but heaven help you if you're ever due money from them. I had to make a claim on the block insurance last year, it was only around ?400. The insurance company paid out their share days after the work had been completed, leaving Charles White owing me the ?250 excess (which I had to pay the joiner out of my own pocket). Without one word of a lie, I waited 6 months on it. 6 ******* months!! I was fobbed off, lied to, ignored, told I'd be called back, had to email them the claim number about 3 times because they kept misplacing it, passed round about 5 different people who were 'dealing' with it. I was seriously considering going up one night and putting a brick through the shop window, they ****ed me off that much.

 

Good luck with them if you move in OP. I've never, ever, came across a more shambolic farce of an outfit, and most likely never will.

 

Bunch of ******* *****.

 

 

Just what I didn't want (but expected) to hear.

[Carl Weathers]

If your serious about renting/buying a flat in a block of flats - chap the doors of some of the neighbours and ask them about the factors and you'll also get an idea of what their like.

 

I'm tempted to do just that - but won't people find it a little strange?

[Jamboelite]

?50 /month Hacking & Paterson - service = meh ANYTHING out of the ordinary means charges (usually WTF)

 

I think as factored developments mature then the residents have the opportuniy to influence charges.

We're with this mob average at best like you say anything out the ordinary then its payday for them.

[southside1874]

I'm tempted to do just that - but won't people find it a little strange?

 

All factors are bad, man. I used to build flats and the factoring was imposed on the buyers. The service they got was terrible and getting rid of them was similar to the SPL changing. You have to get the folk on the estate to agree to new factors. You'll find them all the same though. Its not in their interest to seek the cheapest quote for works as they get a percentage of the cost of the works so the higher the cost the bigger their fee. They have folk who have no experience of building work or estate management as this increases profit when things don't get sorted properly. On the flip side, who would want to have responsibility of ensuring everyone pays for ground maintenance. Obtaining quotes when things go wrong and just the general upkeep of the estate? FWIW I recently quoted for some works for Charles White and the girl in charge came back and tried to cut the price down.

 

Its up to you to challenge the factors. The guy that comes and cuts the grass? go out and get quotes from different companies and put them to the factors. The cleaners? well look up the internet and get quotes from cleaning companies. Factors work for you.....too many folk just accept what they are told. You have every right to recommend a building company to carry out repairs and ensure your factors manage that aspect of the work appropriately. Its like the statutory notice nonsense with the council. Its your property look after it yourselves. Even though your tied into a factor you can manage the factor instead of them managing you.

[JamboJen]

I'm tempted to do just that - but won't people find it a little strange?

If folk think it's weird that's their call, I'd personally quite like a future neighbour of mine to knock on my door and ask about what the block's like.

 

I've been in my flat for 2 and a half years and Ross and Liddell are the factor. When I first moved in, having to pay a factor really grated on me but it's something you get used to and as someone else said above, if you didn't pay the factor to get the gardening done, stair cleaned and get occasional things fixed then it would never get done.

 

I pay a ?145 quarterly charge and then get an additional invoice for anything "over and above" that once a year. When you look at the breakdown of it it's clearly a lot of crap but sadly there's nothing you can do about it. I guess I've just come to accept that it's one of those things you have to put up with!

[southside1874]

If folk think it's weird that's their call, I'd personally quite like a future neighbour of mine to knock on my door and ask about what the block's like.

 

I've been in my flat for 2 and a half years and Ross and Liddell are the factor. When I first moved in, having to pay a factor really grated on me but it's something you get used to and as someone else said above, if you didn't pay the factor to get the gardening done, stair cleaned and get occasional things fixed then it would never get done.

 

I pay a ?145 quarterly charge and then get an additional invoice for anything "over and above" that once a year. When you look at the breakdown of it it's clearly a lot of crap but sadly there's nothing you can do about it. I guess I've just come to accept that it's one of those things you have to put up with!

I have a theory that one of the provisions of some of the new builds is that the property is maintained by a factor because they are built with the absolute minimum standards allowed by building control and in order to get a mortgage for 25 years the property has to be maintained. I doubt whether some of these properties will survive over the 25 year term by any great deal.

[Cow]

The factor is only supposed to take handover of a property / development when all building works are completed to specification. In my experience this is not the case as if the factor plays hardball and refuses handover until certain snagging is done then the builder could use another factor. That is why the residents get hit with so many extras as the factor works through the snagging list the builders should have taken care of.

[Hansel]

My brother's bursd works for Hacking & Patterson, and I'm going to show her this thread to make her feel bad.

[Hansel]

Simon Cowell used to be in this business before he got into music. But he had to give it up, so he's now an...

 

...ex-factor!

 

:turned:

 

Coat, door, taxi.

[Martin_T]

Aka Hacket and Paterson are roasters, looked after my tenement flat in shawlands and have a tendency to always incur charges from their preferred contractors - new locks, tile grouting, door fixed, plumbing works etc on a regular basis - and while I'm not suggesting it's a mutually beneficial arrangement between them, I imagine the Christmas hampers are very generous.

 

Their costs are generally about ?50 a month.

 

Moved into a new place with slightly higher fees, but we have a lift etc. Despite the aforementioned mob of raspers I wouldn't touch a new build without a factor and probably would think again about any flat that didn't have one. I've seen the state of some new developments in Glasgow where the factors sacked the building as hardly any of the owners (absentee landlords/people over stretching their budgets with 110% mortgages from the height of the property boom/party flats) were paying the fees, and these flats which are about 5/6 years old and originally sold for a fortune are absolute dumps.

 

Just to explain why even though I agree with all of the above posts about factors being robbing ****s I'd still use them - if you get a leaking roof, try forcing 10 other people to come up with the money to repair it, without forcing their hand through a factor. Impossible.

 

Case in point being 220 Wallace Street in Tradeston, nice flats when built, but now an absolute mess internally. Lasted 6 months there back in 2006.

[Cow]

My brother's bursd works for Hacking & Patterson, and I'm going to show her this thread to make her feel bad.

Edinburgh or Glasgow office?

[Hansel]

Edinburgh or Glasgow office?

Edinburgh

[Craigieboy]

Edinburgh

 

Her name's not Lisa is it?

[Eckauskas]

Case in point being 220 Wallace Street in Tradeston, nice flats when built, but now an absolute mess internally. Lasted 6 months there back in 2006.

 

This is my building right now.

 

The lower floors are fine, but they get shiter the higher up you go.

[Hansel]

Her name's not Lisa is it?

Nicola.

[Craigieboy]

Nicola.

 

[Munch]

Just moved out of a Charles White place.

They were horrific.

It was only ?20 a month but CW would regularly find other ways to get your money

 

Somebody in the block of flats never paid some money ten years ago? You're paying that.

 

They're painting a couple of doors and bollards - that'll be ?1600 for 8 flats (with a total of 2 doors and 5 bollards)

 

 

God forbid something actually needs fixed - they'll spend ages before sending somebody out.

Stair roof was leaking. Took them weeks before somebody came out - during which time it had got considerably worse.

It took another few weeks before anything was done about it- again whilst the damage got worse and the cost more.

 

 

Charles White my advice avoid like plague they have a licence to print money thats your money and by God do they do it, terrible service and outragiously expensive.

 

Never again would i buy a house with factors involved.

[Carl Weathers]

How much would you say they charged you over the agreed montly amount?

[Konrad von Carstein]

Came home today to find white lines had been painted in the car park, including double white and single white at the "junction" at the end of a 3 on one side and 4 on the other parking bay but bizzarly not at the end of the parking area (of similar size at the entrnce to the car park

 

"Nicola" and her collegues better be ready for an irate phone call if this is added to my fees, complete idiocy.

[Bobby_swing_the_bar]

Factoring is a complete and utter rip off in my eyes. Had to pay ?200 up front to Hacking and Paterson and an ongoing charge every 3 months.

 

All that they do is cut a wee bit of grass and maintain a kids play park. It boils my blood to say the least!

[Munch]

How much would you say they charged you over the agreed montly amount?

 

 

I Got a yearly bill for just under 4k and beware if anyone else does not pay due to bankruptcy or repo everyone else pays for them which added 20k on to the pot to be divided up.

[Guest]

Next time your block buildings insurance is due for renewal, ask the factor how much they get paid from the brokers commission

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/mar/01/hidden-commissions-on-renting?INTCMP=SRCH

[browserchip]

I Got a yearly bill for just under 4k and beware if anyone else does not pay due to bankruptcy or repo everyone else pays for them which added 20k on to the pot to be divided up.

 

Ouch! Most of this sounds like horror stories.

 

Kinda makes me glad I am in my own detached house and not in a factored environment.

[JamboJen]

I Got a yearly bill for just under 4k and beware if anyone else does not pay due to bankruptcy or repo everyone else pays for them which added 20k on to the pot to be divided up.

That's mental!!!

 

I probably pay under a grand a year, which is still a lot when you think about it. ?580 split into quarterly payments plus around ?300-?400 at the end of the year.