Need Help From Anyone Who Lives In Glasgow Tenements!

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  • mleonard79
    mleonard79 Posts: 1,616 Forumite
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    Hi Michelle,

    Just seen your post. Our insurer is also Norwich Union yet ours costs approx £270 a year so your £150 doesn't sound so bad. Ours insures the building for £926,371 so that's about £155000 for each house so I would assume the £80,000 figure has to be per flat. Is it a large flat you're in - how many bedrooms? As far as info about your policy goes the factor has to disclose this to you - I just phoned ours up and asked them to send a copy of the policy out. Try that so you can get a good idea of what your cover really is. I'm still quite confused about the whole thing but the general idea I'm getting is that we are definitely paying more than others in similar properties for our buildings insurance :mad:

    Thanks for the info regarding the contents insurance. We just got our renewal paperwork in this week so I had a closer look at our policy and was shocked to see we're only covered for £18,000 worth of contents :eek: yet we're paying £196 a year for this (and that's with a £65 loyalty discount!) So going to have to do something about that! I've got a few quotes from the sites you mentioned and the cheapest I could find was around £150 for 3 or 4 times the cover we've got now (we're looking for accidental cover and cover outside the home as well though so I don't think we'll be able to find a great price like yours!) I'm going to phone our provider and see if I can get any sort of deal out of them. Thanks for the help.

    Regards

    Michelle
    :hello: :hello: :hello:
  • artisan_2
    artisan_2 Posts: 53 Forumite
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    mleonard79 wrote:
    Hi newby money saver and delerium,

    Thanks for replying - I've had this thread up a while and was beginning to think no-one else lived in Glasgow tenements :rotfl:

    Wow newby money saver - £32.78 a year!! That's unbelievable - that's half of what we're paying a quarter, it's like a month and a half's cover to us! Really shocked by that. Your close sounds like a normal tenement building albeit built slightly earlier than ours (circa 1900) so I can't see why there's such a huge difference!

    Our factor is Hacking and Patterson - the new bill came in today actually, £97.36 for this quarter (£65.34 for the buildings insurance and £27.25 for their management fee for the period!) Anyone else have them as their factor? What do you think of the prices? I'm really just trying to gauge what other people in similar properties are paying for this as I feel we're paying over the odds (even more so now I've seen your post nms!) Our policy does definitely only cover our 6 flats in this one close so the fact you have a housing association as your factor and they may get a discount for insuring a lot of housing might have a lot to do with your cheap price but even so it still makes what we're paying look extreme.

    I'm not as concerned about the contents insurance and I know I can get that a little cheaper and will be looking into it but it's still a small amount compared to the buildings. Our factor changed us from an even more expensive policy to NU so we were actually paying even more last year! Norwich Union definitely do staff discounts for normal insurance policies but I don't know if this being a shared policy with the whole close would mean we couldn't get a discount on it.

    Delerium I posted this up in the insurance forum as well and I'll paste below what someone wrote about block buildings policies and the problems that can arise from having separate policies:



    Anyway any other views from others living in Glasgow tenements and paying block buildings insurance would be much appreciated as the whole thing is baffling!! Thanks.

    Regards

    Michelle



    I live in a block with 12 other flats and our quarterly insurance is apprx £60 per flat.

    We used to use hacking & patterson but they screwed up big time on some roof maintenance and alos were not providing very much for heir monthly fee. We ditched them as too expensive for no return.

    I live in south side and we now use a company called D & I Scott, based locally in shawlands. Much cheaper, much more responsive and give quarterly updates on state of building and areas(close, masonrt, roof etc) are graded ona scale of 1 - 5 with comments.
  • catnatlady
    catnatlady Posts: 69 Forumite
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    I live in a Glasgow tenement of 9 flats. When i bought my flat, there was no factor for the building, so I took on the responsibility for repairs etc. myself. I subsequently bought another flat in the same close to rent out. We do not hold a common insurance policy, but insure our flats individually. Several years ago, I formed a Residents Association and arranged for each resident to contribute a fixed amount each month into a Bank account. This covered all repairs etc.

    All went well until at the end of last year, there was a fire in the basement which caused damage throughout the close. Again, I took it upon myself to sort out the cleaning and redecorating and the insurance claim. At first, my Insurance company agreed to pay all costs and reclaim one ninth from each of the other insurance companies. In the event, they went back on that decision, but each company did agree to pay their share, except one company who insisted that the policy only covers the flat, not common areas.

    Unfortunately, the decorator 'disappeared' on completion of the job and payment of the monies, without giving me a receipt. I am now in the position of trying to get payment from three of the insurance companies who demand a receipt.

    The moral of the tale? Ditch your Factor, arrange a common policy, and watch out for rogue tradesmen!
  • Marshmallow0810
    Marshmallow0810 Posts: 1 Newbie
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    Hi All, Very interesting to read all your posts. We have a common policy through Hacking and Paterson and although I dont know the exact details right now, I know its pretty hefty. Also we're having terrible trouble with tradesmen they sent out and the bills from them are extortionate. Anyone else having problems with Hacking and Paterson? I've sent them 2 letters one in July, the last on 15th August, they havent replied to either. I know they got the 15th August one, because I enclosed the payment with it and that was taken out of my bank 2 days later. I like the sound of D & I Scott, does anyone know if its easy enough to change factors? I mean, does the new factor deal with all the paperwork and contacting the previous one? Sorry if I'm butting in to your post, but I'm kinda new to this and am not sure of the protocol.

    Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Marcella
  • wolfehouse
    wolfehouse Posts: 1,394 Forumite
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    i have the same trouble with hacking and paterson. they sent out a tradesman to fix a step at the entrance and they basically did a botch patch job instead of what we assumed was a real repair. it cost a lot too. they also charge a hefty fee for a gardener to come and snip off a twig or two (the lawn never grows much). In the old days the residents used to meet with the factor regularly. now most of the flats are let out and the owners don't really care. I get the idea you would first need approval of all owners before you can change factors.

    Anyone with a scottish law background know?

    (on the plus side the block insurance seems good and they get each owner to actualoy agree to repairs eventually which would be hard without a factor).

    You can read about some options in: The Tenement Handbook by John Gilbert and Ann Flint.(published by assist archiects)
  • Edinburghlass_2
    Edinburghlass_2 Posts: 32,680 Forumite
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    Probably a bit late to bump this thread but I hope everyone is watching BBC1 Scotland re factors.
  • mleonard79
    mleonard79 Posts: 1,616 Forumite
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    Edinburghlass wrote: »
    Probably a bit late to bump this thread but I hope everyone is watching BBC1 Scotland re factors.

    Hi Edinburgh Lass,

    I wish I'd know there was a programme about factors on - I would have been most interested to see that. What was said? Thanks.

    Regards

    Michelle
    :hello: :hello: :hello:
  • Edinburghlass_2
    Edinburghlass_2 Posts: 32,680 Forumite
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    Here we go...

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7174631.stm
  • jubop
    jubop Posts: 90 Forumite
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    Don't live in a tenement, but know folk who have Hacking and Paterson as factors and are not impressed!!
    JUBOP:j
  • qsusie
    qsusie Posts: 1 Newbie
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    Hi, just joined this site, lots of interesting info. We use D&I Scott in the Southside. Prior to that we used Redpath Bruce, who were quite slow and a bit expensive, although things did get done. Self-factoring may seem tempting, but when something serious happens a good factor can be invaluable. Our basement walls in our tenement started to collapse and D&I Scott were fantastic. It was a very serious situation and the building had to be propped up with steel beams and extensive work done quickly. The factor liaised with the council, building companies,surveyors and workmen, owners and tenants and was on site regularly. A new owner recently wanted to self factor, but there is no way i would agree to that, not in one of these old properties. I have also heard bad reports of Hacking and Patterson, but no personal experience of them. When we went to look at a flat to buy, we walked away after finding out it was self-factoring.
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