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I don't want to go accusing without having all the facts on my side, but I'm definitely wanting to call shenanigans. My factor James Gibb, of which i wont go into it in too much detail keep getting more expensive every month. They seem to keep adding floating charge requests and have now threw in an extra £80 a month for a year from all our flats to get a lift replaced in our building.

Now don't get me wrong, it's an old listed building, and needs it's fair share of maintenance but what has started as roughly £350 a quarter has shot up double to roughly between £620-660 over each of the last three quarters. 

I don't want to go into the ins and outs of the where I'm charged just yet, but I feel like for the first time, going to have be that guy that asks to go onto whatever flat representative board there is for the building and ask why the f**k I feel like I'm being fleeced in the range of up to £220 a month for factor fees, and how everyone else has blindly managed to accept this (there are 90 flats between the two buildings).

Does feel like the factors ripping me off ?
If they do, how do they get to rip us off so much?
Does anyone else fall into this category of problems?
 

Edited by the jambo-rocker
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3 minutes ago, the jambo-rocker said:

I don't want to go accusing without having all the facts on my side, but I'm definitely wanting to call shenanigans. My factor James Gibb, of which i wont go into it in too much detail keep getting more expensive every month. They seem to keep adding floating charge requests and have now threw in an extra £80 a month for a year from all our flats to get a lift replaced in our building.

Now don't get me wrong, it's an old listed building, and needs it's fair share of maintenance but what has started as roughly £350 a quarter has shot up double to roughly between £620-660 over each of the last three quarters. 

I don't want to go into the ins and outs of the where I'm charged just yet, but I feel like for the first time, going to have be that guy that asks to go onto whatever flat representative board there is for the building and ask why the f**k I feel like I'm being fleeced in the range of up to £220 a month for factor fees, and how everyone else has blindly managed to accept this (there are 90 flats between the two buildings).

Does feel like the factors ripping me off ?
If they do, how do they get to rip us off so much?
Does anyone else fall into this category of problems?
 

That's nearly a quarter of a million a year @ £620.00/flat/quarter.

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I thought I was getting diddled paying around £55 p.m. (and that includes gardening and stair cleaning). 

My mate lives in a block of newish flats with a lift, and he estimates the lift costs him a £1 per day due it always breaking down. 

Tell them you don't want the lift replaced and get your 89 neighbours to agree :)

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I prefer the X-Factor, truth be told.


No one prefers the X-Factor to anything, it’s fucking horrendous.

Not really connected to property factors, more landowners, but saw this on Twitter regarding, and can’t stop thinking about it. I think...I think it might be real:
IMG_9702.jpg
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Aye, complete and utter c***s.

Last place where we lived there were sections of wall around the small estate which were crumbling. The original builder of said wall admitted that they used sub-standard bricks, yet would not repair the affected sections. Householders were expected to cough up the £10k+ for repairs, it worked out at around a £170 one-off payment from everyone, no option to spread the payments over a year or include it in the quarterly factor payment. £170 might not seem a lot, but it is to a young family or older person on their own.

Robbing c***s

Going further back, another factor basically charged for changing a light bulb twice a year in the tenement close, try getting the factor to paint the close, no chance.

 

 

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Try being a Factor. Thankless task.

Round up 2doz owners, tell them they need to spend £x each to maintain their building. Their building where they’ve got all their capital and a big mortgage tied up. 2 or 3, or usually the various absentee BTL landlords, decide not to stump and the whole lot very quickly descends into a spiral of decline.

The building lacks the love it needs, the Factor gets blamed but the short sighted c***s can’t see why. And the Factor, who is doing his professional best to keep it even, takes all the grief but struggles to get paid for dealing with these arsehiles.

No, I’m not a Factor. Nor would I be one.

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19 minutes ago, alta-pete said:

Try being a Factor. Thankless task.

Round up 2doz owners, tell them they need to spend £x each to maintain their building. Their building where they’ve got all their capital and a big mortgage tied up. 2 or 3, or usually the various absentee BTL landlords, decide not to stump and the whole lot very quickly descends into a spiral of decline.

The building lacks the love it needs, the Factor gets blamed but the short sighted c***s can’t see why. And the Factor, who is doing his professional best to keep it even, takes all the grief but struggles to get paid for dealing with these arsehiles.

No, I’m not a Factor. Nor would I be one.

pray for the factors

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Check your title deeds - there should be provision for common repairs etc. There may be a deed of conditions setting out responsibilities, mandate for factoring , quorum required for changes etc. 

With such a large number of common owners the factors are probably playing on the fact that getting a quorum to agree change eg giving the existing factor the boot is hugely complicated and beyond the energy and experience of most people, so it could be that they are taking the piss. In excess of £100 per month factoring fees seems extortionate to me. 

Deeds of Condition often mandate that residents form a representative body but in reality that seldom happens.

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The company who does the factoring in our estate got taken to court by one of my neighbours and as a result at the moment we are not paying the factor.

The guy chapped my door one day and told me he was in dispute and was asking the neighbours to stop paying it to support him.  My job means you can't have any bad debts so I wasn't able to stop paying the company but the basis of his claim, and others from places in Scotland, is that this company (Greenbelt) had it built into title deeds that they were the factor for our estate forever and there wasn't anything we could do about it other than pay.  He actually won in court and we all got a letter from the land registrar in Scotland to say this should not be in our title deeds and it was up to the residents to decide on the factor and left payment up to us.

There has since been a bit more hassle with it based on the fact that my street pays more than the street across the road per month (apparently because we have a bigger swingpark) however when breakdowns of work carried out have been arriving annually we are being charged for stuff happening in another street but not in our own.  I don't really know the ins and outs of this as I actively try to avoid my neighbours but the other half is all about standing outside gossiping.

I did look at last years annual statement of works undertaken and its an absolute con with charges like this (not exact figures but along these lines of absolute robbery):

  • 1st January 2018 - Quarterly inspection of area carried out by team, recommendation for swing park to be painted - £400
  • 2nd January 2018 - Quarterly inspection of area quality checked by area manager - £80
  • 3rd January 2018 - Report for swing park to be painted logged by area manager - £50
  • 22nd February 2018 - Swing park painted - £800
  • 23rd February 2018 - Area manager quality check of swing park being painted - £80
  • 24th February 2018 - Area manager submits report confirming status of swing park painting - £50

 

And so on every quarter with works, checks and then reports.  I've lived here for 4 years and whilst the grass gets cut and the bushes at the roadside trimmed back I have never seen any evidence of any swing park being painted.  When I recieved this annual statement I wrote them an email saying that moving forward can they put a card through my door - whether it be a team or a manager -  to confirm they have been in my street that day as I don't believe a word they say.

We also had a strange issue where we have a tree overhanging our garden fence.  It would definitely have torn a hole through my fence if it fell down or continued to overhang.  When we asked Greenbelt to cut it down they said this wasn't their tree and was council owned.........despite them carrying out the groundworks every few week....and then when we phoned the council they said it wasn't their tree either.  So we just got someone in to cut it down, no doubt breaching some kind of rule somewhere.

 

 

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Didn't want to post itt because I could talk about our factors for hours.  We live in a pretty big development and the factors we have are taking the piss and we've found the only way to make things better is to get the property owners as a collective to put pressure upon them. We do have a problem with absentee homeowners though and some of the owners that do live here are basically children so that needs a bit of management.

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My fees are tiny compared to what is mentioned here, but the incompetent mob keep collecting a lesser amount via direct debit and then come shouting the odds when I am in arrears (by about £15 a quarter, not exactly going to be dragging me to court!). Told them multiple times to take what they are due via the direct debit each month, but they still f**k it up.

 

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My fees are tiny compared to what is mentioned here, but the incompetent mob keep collecting a lesser amount via direct debit and then come shouting the odds when I am in arrears (by about £15 a quarter, not exactly going to be dragging me to court!). Told them multiple times to take what they are due via the direct debit each month, but they still f**k it up.
 


Do they send you an invoice/email before they take a payment out every month? If they don’t they can’t take more than the agreed amount with you as you are then entitled to claim it back.

Think they have to inform you at least 5 working days before the direct debit is due. Sounds like a fairly simple task but I imagine they can’t be arsed doing so
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Do they send you an invoice/email before they take a payment out every month? If they don’t they can’t take more than the agreed amount with you as you are then entitled to claim it back.

Think they have to inform you at least 5 working days before the direct debit is due. Sounds like a fairly simple task but I imagine they can’t be arsed doing so


I get email invoices but I never normally look at them. The DD comes out my account I use for bills and is so small that I never really notice it coming out. I just wait for the angry email and repeat every quarter!

The company seem pretty poorly run from an accounts perspective. I was due to pay them £100 upfront, that is refundable should I move house. I never actually bothered paying it for a couple of years and was never chased for it. I ended up sending it over when I was settling my last quarters under payment (despite them still not chasing me for it).
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I get email invoices but I never normally look at them. The DD comes out my account I use for bills and is so small that I never really notice it coming out. I just wait for the angry email and repeat every quarter!

The company seem pretty poorly run from an accounts perspective. I was due to pay them £100 upfront, that is refundable should I move house. I never actually bothered paying it for a couple of years and was never chased for it. I ended up sending it over when I was settling my last quarters under payment (despite them still not chasing me for it).


You’re quite right to be getting pissed off at them then, as they should be quoting the correct amount in the email even if you’re not looking at them, and then taking that amount from your account.
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On 20/06/2019 at 15:59, the jambo-rocker said:

I don't want to go accusing without having all the facts on my side, but I'm definitely wanting to call shenanigans. My factor James Gibb, of which i wont go into it in too much detail keep getting more expensive every month. They seem to keep adding floating charge requests and have now threw in an extra £80 a month for a year from all our flats to get a lift replaced in our building.

Now don't get me wrong, it's an old listed building, and needs it's fair share of maintenance but what has started as roughly £350 a quarter has shot up double to roughly between £620-660 over each of the last three quarters. 

I don't want to go into the ins and outs of the where I'm charged just yet, but I feel like for the first time, going to have be that guy that asks to go onto whatever flat representative board there is for the building and ask why the f**k I feel like I'm being fleeced in the range of up to £220 a month for factor fees, and how everyone else has blindly managed to accept this (there are 90 flats between the two buildings).

Does feel like the factors ripping me off ?
If they do, how do they get to rip us off so much?
Does anyone else fall into this category of problems?
 

JG is our factor also and it is exactly the same for us. from approx £90 per month, it was changed to a quarterly fee and it has increased way beyond £270 a quarter. I think the last three quarters I have paid between £450 and £650. and like you, my fellow residents appear to be quite content with this arrangement whilst it completely and utterly rips my knitting. 

the building used to function perfectly well before JG with a few requirements/upkeeps needed. Now it seems every imaginable issue is needing replaced or renewed. of course, it could be that this is down to years and years of neglect but I very much doubt it. JG are at it. 

 

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