Factors fees + new house

[schrutefarmbeets]

Argh! Property owners, I am confused and need your advice!

I bought a small one bedroom tenement flat at Christmas time, and the home report said that factors fees were £40 per quarter. However the factors just got in touch wanting £50 per month... this doesn't include building insurance or anything.

Is there anything I can do? Speak to the solicitor that I went through? It seems sneaky and I hadn't budgeted for that much more...

That does seem odd. Have you got anything in writing from solicitors?

I've got it in writing on my home report - I'm not sure if it's my solicitor's responsibility though?

This is not normally something the solicitor would check.The solicitor would check that the fees were paid to date and there no outstanding repairs etc.
The fault is on the part of the sellers.You may have a claim against them if you can show there were fraudulent or negligent.
Take legal advice asap

Has it perhaps risen as of the new year? If so both prices are correct and you have just been unlucky

£40 a quarter is very cheap.

£50 per month on the other hand seems very expensive - do you have a lift? The maintenance costs on them push factors bills up.

I thought £40 per quarter was very cheap, but it's a block made up of 12 one bedroom tenements and is excluding insurance so would just be for corridor and garden upkeep.

There's no lift - it's really low maintenance, just plain concrete floors and a communal garden area that some of the residents take care of themselves.

I don't know what kind of legal advice to even seek - first time buyer and I thought it all seemed too easy!

Factors fees are what's putting me off buying a flat. It seems such an unfair system. The more modern ones I looked at initially were quoting up to £70 a month. Daylight robbery

You should speak to the solicitor who acted for you in the purchase.Who were they.You may have a claim against the seller if the info they provided on the factors fees was fraudulent or negligent. Who are the factors

You could also ask the factors what it was in the past and when the previous flat owners were told of the increase. If this was before your concluded missives, then you might have a case against the sellers.

A neighbour of my parents (they're in a big house sub-divided into 6) had to take the previous owner of her flat to small claims court (and won ) for an unexpected bill that the previous owner had known was imminent.

I think £50 a month for a tenement is excessive. I pay £22 a month for mine.

Just wondering if the factors or previous owners are trying to pass costs on to you? We're there any outstanding repairs you were aware of at the time of purchase?

I'd also be asking them for a breakdown of the costs e.g. Stair lighting/cleaning, insurance etc and what repairs have been done in the last year.

There were no costs outstanding (from what my solicitors said) but I have emailed the factors asking if/when the fees went off, and I'll ask for a breakdown too. I find all this so stressful!! Thank you for all your help. I ideally don't want to go through solicitors in case that gets expensive...

Where about are you? Edinburgh tends not to have factors for tenements whereas Glasgow did although now that Edinburgh council
dont organise repairs in the same way that might change.

DH pays £50 a month to the factor but when his account hits x amount, he gets a cheque back. Seems quite reasonable to us looking at all the regular monthly statements of general works like for example the cleaning of common areas weekly, maintaining the communal garden etc.

The solicitor who acted for you in the purchase will probably give you some initial advice for free as it is connected t your purchase .

That seems extreme for just stair and garden, especially if they're not actually getting anyone in to do the garden. Our stair is cleaned monthly, costs £25 and we take turns. Obviously a factor company will have additional admin costs but I can't see how it can be that much per flat.

When we were moving we looked at some modern flats and the monthly fees on anything with a lift were appalling.

I've found a code of conduct for property factors and they should have provided you with a written statement of services within 4 weeks of finding out about your purchase - do you know if they were informed?

www.gov.scot/Resource/0039/00397542.pdf

Although I despise factors and their fees with a passion don't ever be tempted to get rid as suddenly when essential repairs need done someone has to organise quotes, collect fees etc. Not s good position to be in as a friend found out.

As for the fees in question I pay approximately £300 per year for a similar set up.

I'm in Glasgow - I wasn't sure whether if I overpay I would get a cheque back or it would get absorbed into the next year's rate?
I emailed the solicitor I bought the flat through but no reply so I'll have to call on Monday. It seems outrageously expensive for cleaning the hall and lighting it!

Oh thank you 00! I'll have a proper read of this today. They seem to be a big management firm here and respond quickly, I just find it all so confusing 😭

Update:

I heard back from the solicitors and this was their response-

Thanks for your email. I think there has been a mistake on the Home Report as £40 per quarter for factoring fees does seem exceptionally low. £40/£45 per month does seem more realistic so unfortunately I don't think there is anything we can do here.

What??! Surely it was their job to spot any mistakes on the home report?

No I don't think that is their job.The Property questionaire is really for the prospective purchaser to read to get some additional info on the property

As a solicitor I would read it to see if it throws up anything I should be looking at but this would not have rung any alarm bells.if it had been £200 a month or someting i might have thought"seems high ,must check that with the Factor.

Unless the fees have changed massively since the Property questionaire was completed the fault is on the sellers

You may have a claim against them ,you should take legal advice on that

It is maybe not enough of a discrepancy to make it worth the time and expense of court action

I do not think there have been many cases since HRs came in

You should ask the solicitor who acted for you in the purchase for their thoughts on this .They will probably give you some initial free advice but would charge if you took it further

For what its worth the quality of info on Home report Property questionaires varies enormously and is often very poor

Good luck

I read a lot of home reports when we were moving, and in advance when we were seeing what flats near us were going for, and I was amazed at the number of people who didn't know they lived in a conservation area and happily ticked the box to say so - I do wonder if there would be any come back on them.

I'm genuinely shocked at £40/£45 per month per flat when there are 12 flats - do they hand polish the tiles? Do you have luxury carpet that they lovingly brush by hand?

Our factor fees were £140 per quarter for 36 flats. It included stair cleaning, garden maintenance, electricity for communal areas & building insurance.

Understating the factor fees was something that was also done when we bought this place. Our fees were stated at 75 per quarter, they are over double that. 6 purpise built flats with cleaning only every 2nd week, gardening only in summer and buildings insurance seems to add up to a huge amount.

Dreading our next bill as the buildings insurance may be huge. Our neighbour managed to flood their flat to the extent that their floors in the throughout were taken up and their walls all replastered and repainted and the same with the flat below that they flooded.

Despite this apparently huge amount of damage they someone managed to stay living there for over 3 months

What really anniyed me was that they didnt bother telling anyone in the building about the huge amout of disruption that would be caused by the repairs which are still.happening some 9 weeks later