WRITTEN STATEMENT OF SERVICES
Per the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 as revised August 2021, registered property factors are required by law to ensure compliance with the Code of Conduct.
Factors are also required to register as a property factor which can be found at www.propertyfactorregister.gov.scot and take all reasonable steps to display their registration number on all correspondence with owners. Our registration number is PF001012.
The purpose of the statement is to set out our minimum standards of practice in a simple and transparent way, and to provide owners with information on how we will conduct our business in connection with the management of common property, or maintenance of land as detailed in the owner’s title deeds.
The main areas to be covered are:
This statement has been produced in accordance with the requirements of The Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011, and its associated Code of Conduct. This statement required to be read together with your Development Schedule.
Factors Direct Limited is a privately-owned Scottish company with its registered address being Abercorn House, 79 Renfrew Road, Paisley, Scotland, PA3 4DA and a company number of SC747667.
For factoring management, our head office address is 34 Gibson Street, Glasgow, G12 8NX, with the contact number of 0141 739 4439.
Factors Direct is registered with the Scottish Property Factor, with its registration number being PF001012 and have Professional Indemnity Insurance covering claims in excess of £1,000,000.
Our authority to act at any level of delegated authority varies from property to property and will be a result of:
Our level of delegated authority will be detailed in your Development Schedule which will be set to an agreed financial threshold, beyond this threshold we will seek further instruction/agreement from owners to act on their behalf, and where required request for funds to be paid in advance of works commencing. The only situation where we may decide to act without further consultation from owners is in instances of emergency repairs, see section 3. Services Provided – Emergency Repairs below for further information.
Your property Title Deeds and/or Deed of Conditions is a legal document governing your development, property, or land, and unless stated otherwise, will outline the rights and obligations of the owners. Whilst a property factor is appointed to provide services that will assist owners with fulfilling the requirements of their Deed of Conditions, Factors Direct Ltd has no heritable interest in the property nor legal responsibility to ensure that the terms of the Deed are observed. Therefore, it is recommended that the owners fully review their Title Deeds and/or Deed of Conditions. Copies of these can be obtained from the Land Registry for Scotland or from the solicitor who helped with the purchase of your property. If your Title Deeds and/or Deed of Conditions are silent on any aspect of the common management of your property, other legislation may help owners with decision making, such as the Tenement (Scotland) Act 2004 or the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003. For our management of your building/development, Factors Direct will require a copy of your Title Deeds and/or Deed of Conditions and we reserve the right to charge any fee from the Registers of Scotland for this information to owners.
This section provides information on our ‘Core’ services which we will provide as part of our appointment as property factor:
Factors Direct provide the following core services:
The above list is not intended to be extensive but does provide a general overview of the common repair issues and services to be provided by Factors Direct. Detail of specific services provided by Factors Direct will be confirmed in your Development Schedule.
Owners should refer to their Title Deeds and/or Deed of Conditions for detail of specific services required by the factor. Factors Direct act on behalf of owners and shares required (per allocations detailed in the title deed), will be collected from owners per the shares stated.
The core service of the factor is to facilitate communal maintenance concerned with safety, security, aesthetic and preservation of the building or development. For the avoidance of doubt, Factors Direct will not carry out the following services as part of our standard factoring services: internal repairs and maintenance to individual dwellings which would be classed as ‘private’ repairs, private insurance, owner/neighbour disputes and nuisance issues, tenancy complaints/issues, insurance advice, reading utility meters, legal interpretation of Title Deeds or other relevant legislation, administering common insurances arranged by owners/other 3rd parties.
Common repairs and maintenance
Factors Direct, will repair and maintain common parts of the building as detailed in the Title Deed / Legislation and as instructed by owners.
Repairs should be reported via the following channels:
Website: https://www.fixflo.com/
Email: enquiries@factorsdirect.verticaldev.org
Telephone: 0141 739 4439
For routine repairs, we will aim to acknowledge requests within 2 working days of the request being made. We will aim to instruct these works within 7 working days of requests being made if we hold the authority to do so. If we do not hold the authority to do so, we will advise the owners of this in writing and will endeavour to arrange quotations on this basis. Timescales for quotations will be determined by the complexity of the works required.
Where the cost of any service provided by Factors Direct exceeds our level of delegated authority, full advance funding for that service / work, including any fees and VAT, will be required to be provided in full by owners prior to any works being instructed.
Additional Fees
In instances of complex major works, where owners request an independent project manager to be engaged. All costs incurred by the engagement of such a project manager will be chargeable to the owners. We may apply an additional fee for such services which will be notified to owners in advance.
If we conduct additional duties, (such as major common repairs or instructing and pursuing court actions) or if a matter is unusually complex / time consuming, additional fees may be required. Factors Direct reserve the right to add a further management fee to the value of the works up to 12% inclusive of VAT of the costs issued by the contractor.
Any additional fees charged will be notified to owners in writing and in advance of charges being applied.
Emergency Repairs
This service applies to common repairs only. Emergency repairs (out with office hours which are Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm, excluding public holidays) should be reported directly to the on-call contractor. Our voicemail system will provide information on numbers to call. Please note, emergency repairs will incur additional / higher callout charges and costs will be recharged to owners per the apportions detailed in the Title Deed. If owners can also confirm in writing (via email) any emergency repairs reported out with office hours, to allow property managers to follow up on these accordingly.
Factors Direct will endeavour to ensure that emergency repairs are performed or made safe, within 24 working hours of notification of this repair.
There may be instances where the cost of emergency repairs exceeds our threshold of delegated authority to act. If we consider the cost of repair to be justifiable on grounds of health and safety, we will authorise works to proceed without prior consultation from owners and costs of emergency repairs will be charged to owners.
Please note, Factors Direct ability to instruct works is based on the financial status of owners (arrears / floats held), and we cannot be held liable for works not undertaken as a result of lack of funds available.
Please note, if the emergency repair is identified as private, the invoice must be settled directly by the owner responsible for reporting this repair. Common emergency repairs will be charged at the normal apportionments to all relevant owners.
It is the responsibility of owners to ensure that the condition of the building / property does not pose a risk to other owners or third parties.
Inspections
6 monthly inspections will be conducted of the common areas of the building/development. Reports will be produced following any inspection and concerns will be raised with owners / works instructed / quotations will be obtained. More frequent inspections can be arranged for on-going maintenance, major repairs, and developments.
We are also happy to attend annual homeowner meetings within working hours, if applicable and arrange ad hoc meetings for more serious / urgent issues as required.
Insurance
Per the terms of legislation / your Title Deed, owners are required to have common buildings insurance in place. The sum insured should reflect the cost of the reinstatement value of the building in the event of total loss. Factors Direct will arrange an adequate buildings insurance policy on behalf of owners. The cost of this insurance will be billed, usually in advance, to owners per the apportions detailed in the Title Deed. Documentation will be provided to owners which will detail the insurance cover in place and premiums required for payment. Please note, owners will be responsible for arranging their own contents insurance.
If we place insurance on your behalf as a requirement of your Title Deeds, or as instructed by the majority of owners, we will arrange this through an independent Insurance Brokers of our choosing, who have direct access to the insurance market and who market the policies on our behalf to demonstrate how and why they have recommended placing this cover with a particular insurance provider. We are not authorised to provide insurance advice.
Factors Direct do not receive any commissions beyond that taken by the appointed Broker. We instead share the Broker’s standard commission by agreeing to take on a number of their administration tasks in-house. Where we receive a share of the Brokers commission, details will be declared to you in writing.
If we place insurance for common property as part of our core service, it is the individual owner’s responsibility to ensure that the level of sum insured is sufficient. We do not provide insurance re-instatement cost assessments, but we can instruct professional valuers to carry out this service if instructed by the majority of owners. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors recommend that reinstatement cost assessments for insurance purposes are carried out every 3-5 years and Insurance providers may require up to date reinstatement cost assessments to avoid an ‘Average’ being applied.
All claims’ excesses will be apportioned as a common expense, except where alternative charging arrangements have been previously agreed by the majority of owners or a property claim relates to one property only and the circumstances do not involve another property or common area. In this case, the excess will apply to the owner of the property making the claim.
Factors Direct will advise the common buildings insurance of any claim following notification of this to us, by the owner. Thereafter the owner and insurer will be in direct contact with regards to all aspects of the claim going forward.
Management fee
Our fee represents the cost of administering and carrying out the core services detailed in this statement. Our management fee will be detailed in your Development Schedule and charged via your common invoice. Fees will be charged to owners per apportions detailed in your Title Deed and/or Deed of Conditions. The management fee will be reviewed annually to ensure it covers the cost of providing our core services / in line with inflation. We will notify you in writing prior to any change in fee.
Billing
Your allocation of charges for common works or services is shown on your invoice expressed as a fraction or a percentage, and fees will be charged to owners per apportions detailed in your Title Deed and/or Deed of Conditions. Insurance, in most instances, will be invoiced quarterly in advance and there may be occasions where other works require advanced payment. Such advanced payment costs will be notified to owners in advance and in writing.
Requests for advance payment will either be included within the normal invoice run or by be-spoke pro-forma invoicing. Invoices are issued on a quarterly basis in arrears with the dates being 28th February, 28th May, 28th August, and 28th November. Invoices will be sent to owners via email unless requested otherwise in writing (please note additional charges may apply if we are required to send invoices via post). Invoices will be due for payment within 28 days of the date of issue and payment methods will be detailed on the invoice.
If your account remains unpaid 28 days after issue of our invoice, and you have not contacted us to advise of any issues with making payment, our debt recovery procedure will apply which is detailed later in this section.
Any disputed items on an invoice should be raised with Factors Direct within 7 days of despatch of the invoice. Undisputed items on the invoice must still be paid within 28 days of despatch of invoice. Please contact our office to discuss any disputed items.
Included with your invoice will be our management fee, cyclical cleaning, and gardening charges (if applicable), insurance, and reactive maintenance / on-going maintenance charges.
Please note that there may be instances where Factors Direct will require owners to pay funds in advance due to the nature / costs of the works required. Proforma invoices will be issued to owners and works will not commence until funds are received.
Payment methods
Payment arrangements
All owners will make full and prompt payment on demand to the Factor of their share (calculated in accordance with the Title Deeds) of the costs of repairs and maintenance, insurance premiums, common and other charges and all factorial and management fees and charges.
Any queries regarding accounts should be raised as soon as possible. Owners who anticipate having difficulty in making payment are invited to contact us to discuss the reason for the difficulty and, if appropriate, agree an acceptable payment arrangement.
Value Added Tax (VAT)
Factors Direct Ltd is registered with HM Revenue and Customs in order to comply with VAT legislation. Our VAT registration number is 441 7222 20.
Float
In accordance with legislation and/or the Title Deeds, all owners are required to lodge a float with the factor. The float is intended to help the factor in financing communal expenditure, in lieu of recovery through quarterly billing. For those whom a float applies, this amount will be detailed in your Development Schedule and payment is required within 28 days of notification to owners. Funds will be held in our client account on a non-interest bearing basis. The float amount may be subject to change if costs increase significantly. Advance notification of a float increase, along with reasons for the increase, will be given to owners in advance.
If our appointment as factor is terminated or your property is sold, the float will be returned to you minus deductions required of charges detailed in your final account.
Sinking funds
If, in accordance with legislation and/or the Title Deeds, owners are required to pay into a sinking fund for the building/development, funds will be held in an interest bearing client account. The intent of the sinking fund is to aid owners with financing major repair works as required. Please note, any amounts paid into a sinking fund will not be returned to the owner when/if they sell the property. If a sinking fund is required for your building/development, this will be detailed in your Development Schedule.
Client account
Floats and owner payments / credit balances will be held in a client account on a non-interest bearing basis, separate to sinking funds accounts which will be held in an interest bearing client account.
Debt recovery procedure
Full details of our debt recovery procedure are available upon request. In terms of legislation, there is a potential liability present on all owners who have an interest in common property to meet the irrecoverable debts of insolvent owners. If an owner or owners fail to settle their account timeously, it will affect our ability to deliver our core services and we may therefore share information about the levels of debt with other owners having a common interest in the property. However, there are a number of avenues available to us which would, in the vast majority of cases, protect solvent owners from exposure to this risk.
In the event of non-payment after the period of 28 days after issue of our invoice, a stage one reminder notice will be issued to the non-paying owner which will require payment within 7 days of dispatch.
If payment remains outstanding, a stage two reminder notice will be issued. This will include a late payment fee of £25 plus VAT per outstanding invoice, which will be applied to the non-paying owners account and will be detailed on their next invoice. Owners will be granted a further 7 days to settle outstanding debts and will be notified that the account may be passed to a third party Debt Collection Agency for which the cost of recovery will be applied to their account.
Where it is necessary, and considered in the best interest of the owners, a Notice of Potential Liability for costs may be served against the property title of a defaulting owner, under section 10 of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 and a charge of £120 plus VAT applied to the outstanding account.
Having followed the above steps, should payment remain outstanding, a Notice of Court Proceedings may be issued to the defaulting owner in advance of action being referred to Court. The case is then referred to Court and a Decree for Payment raised against the defaulting client. Any expenses and interest awarded by the Court under a Decree for Payment will be due in addition to the principal sum pursued.
If the amount and the expenses as awarded by the Court appear irrecoverable, these shall at our discretion, be paid by the remaining owners jointly to ourselves, each of such owners contributing equally and being entitled to recover such amount from such of the owners as defaulted. Factors Direct also reserve the right to pass details of late payment owners to an external debt collection company. However, in the event of a recovery being at a later date from the defaulting owner, the solvent owners would duly be reimbursed. In any case, given the availability of NOPL, we would hope to reduce impact of irrecoverable debt upon solvent owners.
Factors Direct operates a stringent debt recovery procedure which is consistently and reasonable applied. We will not take legal action against a client without first taking reasonable steps to satisfy any dispute and not before notifying the owner of our intent to take legal action.
Where we feel it necessary, we may terminate our management arrangement at a building or development due to continued levels of individual or development debt.
Additional fees
Factors Direct reserves the right to apply additional charges for significant additional workloads, outside our core services, such as developer issues, major works, significant and on-going insurance claims, hardcopy documentation and invoices etc. Any such charges will be notified to owners prior to billing.
Selling your home
When an owner sells a property in a factored development, you or your solicitor should inform us of the impending change in ownership no less than 14 days prior to the sale date. Factors Direct will liaise with the seller’s solicitor to answer any relevant questions such as any outstanding debt, presence of sinking funds, common insurance details, pending projects, repairs, surveys, and other property information requested. We also offer to make the necessary apportionment of insurances, repairs and other outgoings between you and your purchaser.
Due to the significant internal administration involved in the sales process, we will charge an apportionment fee of £65 plus VAT for flat sales and £45 plus VAT for house sales. We reserve the right to increase these charges if the sale process is protracted, involves substantial additional work or we are provided with less than 14 days’ notice of the sale.
This information is provided to assist you in meeting your obligations, however it is your responsibility to ensure that all relevant information as required by law or sales contract is provided to the purchaser. In the event of there being any resulting impact upon the conveyancing process, we shall bear no responsibility or liability from any resulting action subsequently initiated by either the seller or purchaser. The fee will be intimated to you or your solicitor when we are informed of the impending change in ownership and will be included in your final account. You must pay any outstanding common charge or service charge balance before the date of sale. If your account is not up to date, we may decline to provide information to you or your solicitor.
As some invoices may not be generated until after the sale date (for example quarterly utility bills) the final invoice, including repayment of float (where applicable), is produced some time after the date of sale, to ensure all outstanding costs are correctly split. Factors Direct requires a minimum of 14 days’ notice of sale from the seller’s solicitor. Please note it is the seller’s responsibility to ensure their solicitor is advised of these requirements.
Buying your home
When purchasing a property, the appointed solicitor should make the purchaser aware that there is a factor in place and confirm what the owners’ responsibilities and liabilities are.
This information is detailed in the Deed of Conditions, and it would be helpful for you to obtain a copy from your solicitor.
Our business hours are Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm, excluding bank and public holidays.
If owners require a copy of the Code of Conduct for Property Factors, procedures/polices or other information/documents to better understand the operation of a property factor, please contact us via the channels detailed below:
Telephone calls
Enquiries made by telephone will be returned / acknowledged within 2 working days. Please call our office number on 0141 739 4439 and give as much information as possible to allow our staff to assist effectively with your call.
We will aim to respond back to emails within 2 working days of receipt. If members of staff are on leave or out of the office, you will receive an automatic reply providing further contact information in case of emergencies. All other enquiries will be responded to once the member of staff has returned to the work.
For any emergencies during working hours, please firstly call our office to report this as emails are not always monitored.
If we require more time to investigate a more complex issue, we will acknowledge your email within 2 working days providing a timeframe for a full response.
Letter
We will aim to respond to letters within 5 working days of receipt. If there is a delay for any reason (staff absences etc.), we will acknowledge your letter providing a timeframe for a full response. All letter correspondence should be sent to 34 Gibson Street, Glasgow, G12 8NX.
Factors Direct believes that good communication and customer service is essential in building strong, long term relationships with owners. We will aim to communicate with owners as frequently and clearly as possible to keep you updated with all matters relating to your building.
Factors Direct would kindly request that owners keep their contact details updated with us and make us aware of any tenants residing in your property with contact details if applicable. We would also request that owners make us aware if there is a letting agent looking after your property to ensure that any urgent matters are handled quickly and efficiently.
Factors Direct is committed to providing the best quality service and we constantly strive to improve those services. We aim to identify problems at the source and to solve them quickly and efficiently.
Full details of our complaint’s procedure are available upon request. This procedure will be applied consistently and reasonably. In brief, our complaints process has two stages:
Stage 1:
Stage 2:
Address: The Housing and Property Chamber First Tier Tribunal for Scotland, 4th Floor, 1 Atlantic Quay, 45 Robertson Street, GLASGOW G2 8JB
Website: https://housingandpropertychamber.scot/
Email: HPCAdmin@scotcourtstribunals.gov.uk
Telephone: 0141 302 5900
Contractor complaints
Any complaints or concerns you have regarding our contractors work or conduct should be notified to our office in writing via the channels listed above. We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 working days of receipt and will pass this to the contractor involved to allow them to respond to your complaint. We will keep you updated on timeframes for resolution and correspondence with the contractor.
We request that owners making a complaint provide us with as much evidence as possible e.g., photographs, to allow us to highlight to the contractor any shortfall in the services provided.
The contractor will be given the chance to correct the problem. However, if this is not completed to a reasonable level, Factors Direct may instruct an alternative contractor to resolve the issue and deduct the costs from the original contractor or refuse to pay the original contractor’s invoice.
We are required to disclose any financial or ownership interest which Factors Direct holds within your building or development. Factors Direct falls under the Cairn Group, linked with Cairn Estate and Letting Agency Ltd and Property MOT Ltd. There may be instances where we manage a property for let or sell a property within your building/development. The disclosure of any interest will be communicated to all the owners at the outset of the factoring arrangement and will be confirmed on your Development Schedule. Unless stated otherwise, Factors Direct has no interest to declare.
In accordance with the requirements of the Title Deeds and/or Deed of Conditions for your development, the agreement with Factors Direct can be terminated, in writing, to enquiries@factorsdirect.verticaldev.org or by post. Owners should evidence that the agreement has been properly mandated with the sufficient number of owners in agreement of the termination. This evidence should be supplied by email or hard copy. The termination notice period is 3 months.
If your Title Deeds and/or Deed of Conditions are silent on this aspect, other legislation may help owners with decision making, such as the Tenement (Scotland) Act 2004 or the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003.
The final invoice will be produced within 3 months of the termination notification. Any float or credit balance due will be included as a credit assuming that all individual debts have been cleared, unless specified in the Title Deeds and/or Deed of Conditions. Any outstanding development debt will be distributed, as a cost, between all owners in the development. This cost will appear on the final invoice. Any monies held in sinking funds will be used to offset development debt where required.
Where termination has been notified, Factors Direct will work with the incoming property factor / self-factor to assist with a smooth transition process, including the transfer of owner and any other relevant development information (subject to data protection legislation) and letter of authority from the majority of owners confirming their instructions on the information they wish to be shared.
All contractors will be notified that invoices need to be received without delay however, we would highlight that any invoices received after the final service charge invoice has been issued, for services incurred during our management, will be due and payable and will be invoiced accordingly to owners. If an invoice is not received or concluded due to a dispute or other, this may cause the termination process to go beyond the required 3 month period after termination for conclusion of the account. Alternatively, we may issue the account and note that owners can expect a further account on conclusion of the matter.
Factors Direct also reserve the right to terminate management services with immediate effect in the event that owners prevent the progress of work required to ensure the common areas of the building / development are compliant in respect of health and safety.
During the course of our activities, we will process personal data (which may be held on paper, electronically, or otherwise) about you. We recognise the need to treat this information in an appropriate and lawful manner per the Data Protection Act 2018. Our Privacy Policy, which is located on our website at: https://factorsdirect.verticaldev.org/cookie-gdpr-privacy-policies confirms what information we collect, when we collect it and how we use it, as well as your rights to access or change this information.
Our ICO registration number is 02080003151, with a reference of ZB556515.
Should you wish to complain about the use of your information, we would ask that you contact us to resolve this matter in the first instance. You also have the right to complain to the ICO in relation to our use of your information. The ICO’s contact details are:
The Information Commissioner’s Office – Scotland
45 Melville Street,
Edinburgh,
EH3 7HL
Telephone: 0131 244 9001
Email: scotland@ico.org.uk
The Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 can be read in full here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2011/8/contents
Obligation to Register
Under the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011, all Property Factors operating in Scotland must Register with the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government operate a public register of Property Factors in Scotland which can be accessed here:
https://www.propertyfactorregister.gov.scot/PropertyFactorRegister/
It is a criminal offence to operate as a Property Factor in Scotland whilst unregistered and without reasonable excuse. All Property Factors in Scotland must include their registration number on any document sent to a homeowner.
Code of Conduct for Property Factors
All Property Factors in carrying out their duties must comply with the Code of Conduct for Property Factors which can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/code-of-conduct-for-property-factors-2021/
Section 3, Services provided.
Section 4, Financial and charging arrangements.