Property factors problem

wellieboot_2

Folks,

Background here is I live in a modern developement with a number of blocks and about 130 flats. Each month everyone pays a fee which is meant to cover building's insurance, gardening and stair cleaning and every six months pay an extra amount on top if anything is due.

Problem we have is not everyone is paying their share. Factors are chasing up the arrears but it takes ages to get the shirkers to court, and even then they might just settle the arrears at a pitance of an amount each month.

Situation we have now is there's not even enough being paid to cover the building's insurance and a debt is gradually building up which is a debt on the developement as a whole .........ie the honest regular payers.

People want to move to another factor however short of employing Vinnie Jones Factors plc we'll still have a significant number of people who refuse to pay.

Has anyone out there come across this before and did you find a resolution?

Having a factor is written into the terms of the deeds.

Thanks

Sunshine12

Havent factors started court proceedings against offending residents yet? Problem you may have is that if you are in Scotland your Deed of Conditions will probably state that if they cant get the money out of other residents then the rest of the residents have to pay it. Have you tried discussing with the residents who arent paying to find out why they are choosing not to?

wellieboot_2

Sunshine12 wrote: »

Havent factors started court proceedings against offending residents yet? Problem you may have is that if you are in Scotland your Deed of Conditions will probably state that if they cant get the money out of other residents then the rest of the residents have to pay it. Have you tried discussing with the residents who arent paying to find out why they are choosing not to?

Thanks Sunshine. Yes, I'm in in Scotland. Factors tell us there's a long winded process of taking non payers to court, and due to huge backlogs at the courts things are taking ages to be heard - up to a year. Apparently the residents association are getting hold of a list of non payers - names, addresses and arrears amount. From hearsay chats in the developement, we have a why bother attitude from non payers. I think this problem is not unique to our developement

Sunshine12

Its quite common. Unfortunately there isnt alot you can do about it. Have seen it a number of times. Id be inclined to convene a residents meeting to discuss although its unlikely it will make much difference to the final outcome. Just make sure your property managers are doing what they say they are - Ive seen issues with that all before too!! Good luck.

Jowo_2

It's very common. 2 out of 8 flats wouldn't contribute in our tenement and the ones that wouldn't pay were also the ones that had anti-social tenants, dumped bulk rubbish, made a mess and complain about the progress of repairs that they weren't paying towards!

Have a look at the Shelter Scotland website about non-paying owners (though I guess that it is only going to say they need to be taken to court). Perhaps you need to arrange a vote to sack your factors and replace them with an organisation with a bit more teeth.

Are these mainly owner-occupiers or buy-to-let absent landlords? For the absent landlords, are they registered on the Landlord Registration scheme? We, in a small tenement, contacted the local authority about one non-registered landlord who was in arrears and after they contacted him, he paid back his arrears.

Are you aware that local authorities can issue rent penalty notices preventing the tenants from paying rent or prosecute unregistered landlords? Escalate it to the local authority and chuck it over to your MP if they don't progress them. I believe there was a luxury development in Glasgow with dozens of ghost landlords where the insurance became invalid through non-payers and I thought the police were callled in by the local authority? Landlords who have been prosecuted for housing law related offences can be deemed 'not fit and proper' and get banned from letting.

If the Factors admin is good (invoices, etc), it should be quite simple and they should be quite experienced at taking people to court. Granted there may be a wait until the court date, but the form itself is relatively simple.

There's something called a 'Note' or 'Notice of liability' which can be placed against properties for owed money at Registers Scotland which means that it has to be paid if the property is sold. Remains in place for 5 years so has to renewed. Don't know if you have to have a court judgement first. Ask your factor or Registers Scotland for info on this.

How about setting up a website for the owners association which happens to include the minutes which happens to include the property addresses, owners names and sums owed published for all to see? In some countries, they send round debt collectors in costumes or with instruments to humiliate the can pay/wont pay debtors. This seems quite a diplomatic way of factually reporting it.

wellieboot_2

Folks,

Thanks for the tips.

We've already got a website set up (password protected of course. Don't want to be washing all our dirty laundry in public) and hopefully details of the main debt offenders will be published on the site. Not sure about data protection act implications though.

The factors are organised and say they're taking debtors to court, but that it takes a while to reach there. They issue regular invoices but we've been having issues about the accuracy of their billing.

I particularly like sending a a band round the debtors, I think a mariachi band would be exceptionally annoying.

One further thing we do have a number of BTL flats, which appear to be the scourge of all areas.

We've got a residents meeting coming up but no doubt time will be wasted going round in circles complaining about grass not being cut.