Property Factors Glasgow

[readsalotgirl63]

Our residents association is thinking of changing factors - anyone got any recommendations or otherwise ?

Anyone ??

No clue but hopeful bump for you.

My flat has been managed by Spiers Gumley for about 15 years & I've found them to be reasonable.

Unfortunately I've never heard anyone really recommend a particular factor. I see them as a necessary evil that you have to keep an eye on.

We use James Gibb in Edinburgh but they also have a Glasgow branch. They promised a lot when we changed to them but have delivered very little and a lot of the issues we've been raising for probably close to a decade are still outstanding. I do think that part of that may be the actual person who is our property manager as he moved from the previous factor after we changed to JG and then later he got allocated our estate again. There is no visible maintenance or improvement plan and we often get hit with additional charges on our bills that we haven't been informed of in advance - not usually big but they all add up.

James Gibb are absolute bandits. Their insurance charges are extortionate, they're useless at regular maintenance to prevent problems and when problems do come up they get cowboys in so it needs done again 6 months later. They also go with the cheapest quotes and surprise surprise they are shit. We got some cowboy painting our close for a grand and a half - I am not joking when I say I could have done a better job myself. We (residents) wanted a slightly more expensive better one but they woulnd't listen. Our roof has leaked for at least 10 years so I'd expect this will require very expensive remedial work when small jobs done properly could have prevented it. We have no control over our own homes. Avoid at all costs.

The whole factoring system is an absolute scam and successive governments have done hee haw about it. Self-factor if you can. Rant over.

Stay well away from Hacking and Patterson

@emmathedilemma interesting, I didn't read your message before I posted mine! I'm in Glasgow not Edinburgh so it's obviously not a problem with one office.

@princesspenny

Stay well away from Hacking and Patterson

I came on to say this very thing!

I've experienced James Gibb too - agree they are awful.

It really is money for nothing.

But I can honestly say that Spiers Gumley have been good - I only pay £20 a month for a tenement in Glasgow. All repairs done & communication good - but that could just because all the owners cough up & no issues with non-payers.

Wow - thanks folks. We're currently with Speirs Gumley who I don't think are wonderful but are not awful. I agree completely with @thedevilinablackdress - that's a much more polite version of what my old dad used to say
Some residents are very keen on 91BC who I'd never come across - because they are "dynamic and engaged" but my concern is they are "engaged" just now but once we've switched to them will be just as bad as any of the others.
Thanks for the heads up re Hacking & Paterson and James Gibb

@readsalotgirl63 I think my friends are with 91bc and they were good to start with and promised a lot but haven't lived up to expectations at all.

Hacking and Paterson are famously rubbish.

@ProseccoThyme that is interesting re Spiers Gumley, we pay £100 p/m most of which is insurance. We've gone up from about £160-180 per quarter to more than £300 over the last 3 years, all insurance. May I ask does that include buildings insurance (not trying to take over the thread here but it might help the OP to see what is and isn't reasonable costs!)

91BC certainly talked the talk to start off with and I think they're actually pretty proactive doing things, but their charges are questionable... Eg they have a lot of in house trades instead of getting quotes, and these seem more expensive than if quotes had been received. If they don't like difficult (but reasonable) questions on their online maintenance platform they just seem to close down the threads rather than reply.

@ballstofactors ( love the name ) and @suggestionsplease1 - thanks for that.
With regard to cost I think we're currently around £100 per month with Speirs Gumley and that does include buildings insurance.

Interesting to hear more about 91BC. One of the reasons some residents are keen to move to them is the ability to source tradesmen ourselves ( although in my view you might as well self manage at that point ) but I do wonder how keen the factor would then be to use a resident sourced tradesman rather than their own choice /inhouse.

I don't want to be too outing but my impression is that the desire to change is driven by a couple of fairly new vocal residents who seem to have persuaded a majority. I suspect the change is a done deal but wanted to see what I could find out more myself especially to counter the "wonderful, dynamic new model " narrative.
I suspect it will go downhill once we've changed - lets hope I'm proved wrong.

Sorry @ballstofactors are you currently with Speirs Gumley ?

hi @readsalotgirl63 no I'm with James Gibb, sorry that wasn't clear.

i think the only way to get anything done would be to change every couple of years so you get the best of their input when they take over a new development and throw all their energy at it. We fired Charles White over an issue with contractors they hired (it nearly came to legal action and if we hadn't had someone in the legal profession on our resident's committee i think we'd have been even more screwed).

@emmathedilemma - traditionally buildings don't change probably because it's too much hassle and because it's rare for a building to ahve an unchanging/stable group of residents but you're quite right - it should be as common to change factor as it is to change utilities supplier

@princesspenny

Stay well away from Hacking and Patterson

This x100

Avoid D and I Scott in Shawlands, Glasgow. They are terrible.

Macfie and Co ( also Glasgow ) are very expensive but they do seem to get things done.

@readsalotgirl63

Our residents association is thinking of changing factors - anyone got any recommendations or otherwise ?

Is there an option to use a housing association in your area? We (my block of tenement flats) managed to sign up to a local housing association which is a not-for-profit org who have been brilliant.

Depending on your area, there's a few decent ones but not all take on new properties.

We were lucky to have one of the best rated HAs who took us on & they've been brilliant the whole time we've had them.

Private factors are all mostly awful. Hacking and Paterson are particularly bad.

Housing associations can be better factors than private factors, but then also charge through the nose for things. The GHA (or whatever it's called now) has it's own factoring service which isn't bad, particularly if your block is all owners as there can be disputes about HA led repair programmes in mixed blocks.

Self-factoring is an option but it only needs a couple of people to move and/or fall out with each other to end in deadlock, which I guess is why people still mostly use factors, despite all their faults.

"Housing associations can be better factors than private factors, but then also charge through the nose for things."

We've been v lucky on that front, as ours is a not-for-profit org & have been very reasonable too. Much cheaper than private factors & far less hassle. We were self factoring for 20 years but could never get agreement on work & were lucky that the lack of maintenance over that period wasn't an expensive headache & the work needed to get the block up to the minimum standard to get on HA books was manageable.

It was always 1 flat that stopped us getting anything done & the thing that eventually got us over the line was a story in the press of the front sandstone facing of a tenement block in the west end falling down. That focused the stubborn flat owner on the downside of self factoring!

Another vote for ‘run away as fast as you can!’ re Hacking and Paterson.