Factors Fee - Administration Cost
Discussion
First off, our factors here are fecking useless. Really f
king useless. I had to chase their appointed tree surgeon off my front garden recently as he was about to chop down one of my trees, and they were worse than useless when I spoke with them about it.
I've just received the following from them in an e-mail:
"Since 2017, the Scottish Government have been reviewing the Code of Conduct for Property Factors and
following consultation with property factors, homeowners and other organisations the revised Code of Conduct
for Property Factors came into effect on 16 August 2021.
Having contributed to this consultation process and researched the impact these revisions may have on the
terms of our service agreement with you and your neighbours we have now finalised all required amendments
to our Terms of Service and Delivery Standards. The amendments required because of the revised code,
which do not substantially alter our agreed terms, were considerable and in consideration of our administration
and training requirements, we are required to render an administration fee to your account. This was
recognised by the Scottish Government, who identified through their business impact assessments that the
estimated cost for creating and issuing amended terms would be around £10 per homeowner. Whilst this may
represent the costs involved, we strive to reduce the impact upon our customers and have reduced the
administration cost to £5, which will be included in your November common charges account. Further
consideration of any increased workload the additional requirements arising from the revised Code of Conduct
have will be considered nearer our annual review."
So, basically, they've incurred some training and admin costs, and are doing me a favour by only charging me a fiver.
Now, I can't be arsed doing anything about it, but, this sentence:
"This was recognised by the Scottish Government, who identified through their business impact assessments that the estimated cost for creating and issuing amended terms would be around £10 per homeowner."
especially the word recognised makes it sound a bit like they don't have a right to charge this, but would like us to think so.
My take it, your admin and training costs are your own, you can fk off if you think I'm paying it.
But what say you? Can they just make up admin costs and charge us as they see fit?
My solicitor has all the paperwork, I do need to go see him about some other things, but I'm not going to bother him about this over a fiver
king useless. I had to chase their appointed tree surgeon off my front garden recently as he was about to chop down one of my trees, and they were worse than useless when I spoke with them about it.I've just received the following from them in an e-mail:
"Since 2017, the Scottish Government have been reviewing the Code of Conduct for Property Factors and
following consultation with property factors, homeowners and other organisations the revised Code of Conduct
for Property Factors came into effect on 16 August 2021.
Having contributed to this consultation process and researched the impact these revisions may have on the
terms of our service agreement with you and your neighbours we have now finalised all required amendments
to our Terms of Service and Delivery Standards. The amendments required because of the revised code,
which do not substantially alter our agreed terms, were considerable and in consideration of our administration
and training requirements, we are required to render an administration fee to your account. This was
recognised by the Scottish Government, who identified through their business impact assessments that the
estimated cost for creating and issuing amended terms would be around £10 per homeowner. Whilst this may
represent the costs involved, we strive to reduce the impact upon our customers and have reduced the
administration cost to £5, which will be included in your November common charges account. Further
consideration of any increased workload the additional requirements arising from the revised Code of Conduct
have will be considered nearer our annual review."
So, basically, they've incurred some training and admin costs, and are doing me a favour by only charging me a fiver.
Now, I can't be arsed doing anything about it, but, this sentence:
"This was recognised by the Scottish Government, who identified through their business impact assessments that the estimated cost for creating and issuing amended terms would be around £10 per homeowner."
especially the word recognised makes it sound a bit like they don't have a right to charge this, but would like us to think so.
My take it, your admin and training costs are your own, you can f
k off if you think I'm paying it.But what say you? Can they just make up admin costs and charge us as they see fit?
My solicitor has all the paperwork, I do need to go see him about some other things, but I'm not going to bother him about this over a fiver
How can they possibly estimate it at £10 per household if they have no idea of the number of households?
It it's purely admin costs then they should be approx the same to each factor.
It's going to be far less per household if the factor has thousands of clients as opposed to one that has half a dozen.
Cold said:
That all sounds like it's the fault of Westminster.
I think you'll find it's all the fault of the Toreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees in Westminster. *ahem*.
AFAICT (and IANAL) there is no legal basis for them to charge. Yes it may be a cost of £10 per household but that's a cost to the business of doing business not a cost for the household.
I would write and complain using their complaints procedure in their written statement of services.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/housing...
So the property management company incur additional costs due to legal changes, and instead of passing them to the end user of the service, they suck them up as a hit to their p&l, bonuses and share dividends.
Seems fair, though opinions make vary.
I assume the lease caps the rate of increase for factor charges? Else I would expect it to be passed on as a matter of course in next year's charge.
Seems fair, though opinions make vary.
I assume the lease caps the rate of increase for factor charges? Else I would expect it to be passed on as a matter of course in next year's charge.
Ian Geary said:
So the property management company incur additional costs due to legal changes, and instead of passing them to the end user of the service, they suck them up as a hit to their p&l, bonuses and share dividends.
Seems fair, though opinions make vary.
I assume the lease caps the rate of increase for factor charges? Else I would expect it to be passed on as a matter of course in next year's charge.
Oh they can pass them on...I just don't think they can make up a charge to do it. They could increase their prices to cover it. Seems fair, though opinions make vary.
I assume the lease caps the rate of increase for factor charges? Else I would expect it to be passed on as a matter of course in next year's charge.
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