The Ex-Factor
Without wanting to open too poisionous a can of worms we thought it might be interesting to find out what people make of their building's Factor.
It's an issue that I know gets quite a lot of us tenement dwelling Glaswegians in quite a fankle and judging from an email we recieved last week the horror stories of poor workmanship, excessive bills and a general feeling of being ripped off continues. Some have decieded to go down the self-management system but that usually means one poor soul in the building ends up doing all the work.
But surely not everyone is in this boat, there must be at least one reliable and respectful Factor out there doing their best for their clients. Afterall, as we had to remind our own factor recently, they are actually our employee.
Lets hear your stories. Who would you reccomend and who should we all stay well clear of?
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posted by Alburt at 11:01
24 Comments:
I actually don't have much bad to say about mine - Cathcart Housing Association.
But I know others are AWFUL.
We have Redpath Bruce and they have been pretty useless.
Usual stories of workmen carrying out poor quality/ faulty work and Redpath Bruce having no checking procedures and we are expected to pay regardless.
Apparently they only check work over £500 in value. Just had a quote for quite extensive repairs £13k worth and been told by Redpath Bruce that as its over the £500 they will inspect but that we'll get charged an additional fee for them to do so. Not sure what we are paying for?
How much is a normal monthy managment fee anyway and what should it include?
MacFie and Co have got to be the worst. Asked me to pay for something that their guy didn't fix, but I did. Wankers.
I grudge mines as its estate wide so
I'm always getting billed for things that happen Streets away! Grrrr
In our building we've setup a residents committee to try and get a stronger, unified voice and control over the work carried out to our building.
Proved to be quite time consuming to get going but we now do seem to be making some head way i...n getting the Factor to look after our best interests. Though they do seem to be relying on us to do a lot of the work for them. Fingers crossed our first major project will be going ahead soon.
I would have to second the uselessness of Redpath Bruce. Had a factor meeting on a repair-in-waiting and left only with buyer's remose; the factor provided no organisation nor outcomes for the meeting. Posilutely useless.
Thanks for the link to the Govanhill Law Centre Advice page. Their advice on replacing your factor (http://www.govanlc.com/replacefactor.htm) may come in handy very, very soon.
Our factor is MacFie & Co. The sound of the receptionist's voice answering the phone will stay with me forever.
They're fairly good at getting stuff done but I feel like we're being ripped off at every corner.
Also, the paralegal who works there is easily one of the most condescending women I have ever encountered.
She must be stopped!
I think for the most part the anger and frustration stems from a lack of transparency with the billing. I pay £45 a month and I have absolutely no idea what that is for. 25% is 'management fee', whatever that means. Another chunk is insurance. But even small repairs are extra. We have no stair cleaning service and the grass is cut maybe twice a year at the most - and I don't even think our factor arranges that. Doing the maths, that's £360 income a month from our building. I doubt very much that is the cost of our monthly insurance premium. But I cannot see where else the money goes. Perhaps if factors explained more clearly what we were being charged for, they would experience fewer irate customers.
I am one of those poor souls who self factors, bit of a nightmare really, but at least we know exactly where all the money is going. Saying that I and am reluctantly about to go down the factoring route as it's just too much work for one person!
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Sorry about all the commenting then deleting, I've been trying to leave a comment anonymously about our factor and it's NOT WORKING!
We have Cumming, Turner and Watt - not at all impressed with them - if you don't constantly chase them stuff just doesn't get done - and when stuff does get done they don't bother telling you it's been done - just send the invoices! We have a mix of domestic and commercial properties which adds another element to it.
There is a trade association for factors - The Property Managers Association Scotland - http://www.pmas.org.uk/ - which has a Code of Practice - which we have quoted to our factor on several occassions as a reminder of their 'commitment' to their customers!
There is also a list of factors on the site.
I live in a close with 8 flats and we manage it ourselves. Of course it can be difficult since you are dependent on the other people in your close being willing to chip in for repairs etc, but I have found it has actually brought us closer together and made us get to know eachother. We all pay £30 per month per flat to pay for cleaning and to build up a small fund that can be used for repairs and upkeep. Many of us are families with young children and we all care about the building. We might look into getting a common building insurance, if this would cut the cost for us all.
I wish it was easier to get help to set up a functioning self-factoring association. We haven't got any legal stuff done so we are reliant on everybody's goodwill, so far so good, but it would cause problems if someone moved in who wasn't up for it.
I can't believe some of the horror stories I've heard regarding factors. We will work hard to do it on our own, even if it leads to conflicts in the close. They can be resolved! I hate the idea of having to phone up some person who doesn't even know the building that well. Of course the admin is quite a lot of work, especially doing the research to find contractors etc, but you're at least in control!
Hi there,
I'm aware that this is a very old thread but I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has moved from factor'd to self factor as myself and my neighbour are interested in doing this, however the rest of the flats are let out. Thoughts/experiences very interested...
Hi Neil, You need to look at your Deed of Conditions as it might state you have to have a factor in place. You will probably need a majority of votes for self-factoring from owners. Good luck.
OK, seems to be plenty of horror stories about factors...no wonder they get a bad name. Apart from slef-factoring, which isn't an option due to a number of personality clashes, does anyone have any good stories about a good factor!
Sorry, no recommendations here, just another downvote for MacFie and Co.
I can't advise strongly enough against them; I found them workshy and defensive; they ignored what they were told to do, and instead of providing a useful service where you could delegate a task and let them handle it... at every stage they needed chased.
Redpath Bruce are crooks. They get 20% of insurance proceeds and they work that arrangement to make the most for themselves. If you have water ingress they will work with their contractors to maximise the damage.
HI there - who is it that assigns factors to buildings? Sorry if I'm being a bit thick but I wondered who is in charge of this? I remember mine changed from a good one to a really poor one , I can' t remember the reasons but surely there is a gap in the market for an honest, transparent company? It really doesn't sound like a difficult job.
In answer to the question of who assigns factors to buildings. The answer is that new builds will get picked by whoever builds it. Probably with the usual giving it to a mate kind of logic.
Older buildings will have had factors for decades and probably got them when the buildings passed from council control to private ownership.
I'll just leave you wit this email I have just sent to Redpat Bruce....
To whom it may concern,
I am writing this email to complain about our extremely incompetent housing manager. I live at......... I have lost track of how long ago I phoned to request a new back door for the property, as ours is in very bad condition, and also for the inside of the building to be cleaned. I was told that it was no problem, and that quotes would be sent out and we would just have to wait for the neighbours to agree to a new door and cleanse. Months later still no letters or any form of communication on the progress of our request, so I phoned back and the manager apologised, he asked me to email photographs of the door so that he could pass them on for quotes from different joiners, he also assured me that it was a priority as was arrangements for a inner clean. Again, several months later still no quotes or cleanse. I phoned back, he was not available, I reiterated to a female manager that I was very unhappy with how our housing manager was dealing with our simple, and important requests. She also apologised, she told me that the email containing the photographs of the door had been received and she would push forward for quotes, and for the interior to be cleaned. I called back two weeks later as we still had no letters or phone calls about the requests, our housing manager again was unavailable, as was the previous female manager I had spoken to. I spoke to another male manager, I explained the situation, he told me that there were in fact 3 quotes for joiners on the actual building managers desk, and that he would push them forward and get letters out straight away, and organise a clean also. I made it very clear I was extremely unhappy with the lack of communication and explained that I wanted to make a formal complaint about the housing manager, and his poor communication and service, he apologised and told me that he would pass on the complaint to a senior. I have attached photographs of our interior and of our door, our door is now a security hazard, if our home is broken in to, our home insurance may not cover any losses as the door is in such a terrible condition. In conclusion, for the past several months since speaking to the last female manager, I have phoned every two weeks and not once since then, spoken to the actual manger for the property, I have been passed from person to person repeating the situation over and over again, with no results. I am extremely frustrated and disappointed with the treatment I have received from everyone I have spoken to at Redpath Bruce. All of your "team" should be ashamed of themselves for providing such a poor service. To top off our disgusting treatment from, again, our building manager, my husband phoned today (14/07/16), and the receptionist said he was currently on a call and that he would phone back. No phone call back. My husband phoned, and was greeted by an answer message informing us that you were currently closed and would be over the Glasgow fair weekend. I hope to hear back when the holiday is over, and have our requests dealt with as soon as possible.
Sincerely
Our factor changed from Edzell to Redpath Bruce a couple of years back and overall I'm pretty pleased with Redpath's performance. I guess it very much depends on the age and 'difficulty' of the property, the building manager and how motivated they are to work in the interests of the owners.
Whilst they no doubt take a cut of common buildings insurance premiums, their size means that they can negotiate premiums below that offered independently (at least based on the quotes I received). I've had a couple of water ingress issues and have found the buildings policy paid out albeit with a £250 excess split between all the flats (irrespective of whether your flat was 'involved'.
Are they cheap? No. But neither are they very expensive. And at least the costs are well itemised. Costs would drop if residents either took bulk items to the dump or called the council to avoid the factor getting a contractor to do it.
Factors are like estate agents and the tax man. No one will sing their praises from the rooftop but Redpath Bruce, at least in my experience are pretty decent.
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