Need Help From Anyone Who Lives In Glasgow Tenements!

2boysmum

We called an independant plumber to have a look at the water tank in our building, we payed £30 and he went up into the roof, said there was no leak in the tank, that he checked a metre round the tank each way, checked inside the tank and there is definately no leak, he said the tank wasn't in the best condition but it would probably last another 3-5 years!! He also said he would happily put it in writing if needed. A few days ago GHA came to the door and said they were putting off the water so they could install the new tank, told them what the plumber said, he basically called him a liar and said that he had been up and there was a leak. I asked him if he thought that the water was maybe comiing from the gaping hole in the roof, he said no he knew there was a leak and we needed a new tank. My neighbour told them that she wasn't letting them up the stairs as there was no way she was paying £400 for a tank we didn't need.:rotfl:Eventually he phoned his boss and he told him just to leave it and let us fight amonst ourselves. I really am losing patience with them, our building is in such a state I feel like just giving my keys to the bank and walking away!

Drea2904

GHA just cost a fortune for everything, £100 for them to clean my close then cut the grass and walk through the (partially clean) close!!!!

2boysmum

Drea2904 wrote: »

GHA just cost a fortune for everything, £100 for them to clean my close then cut the grass and walk through the (partially clean) close!!!!

Your lucky, they don't even clean my close, they just move the door mats and walk out with dry mops!! I am contacting them to get the stair cleaning removed as I do it myself and don't see why I should pay them for nothing

2boysmum

Just had a bill in for the damage to the close ceiling, they have charged us £24.59. The bill says Make safe ceiling and close-remove plasterboard (did) , Make safe close ceiling-is that not the same thing? - trace and identify water ingress and fit felt fender as a temporary repair (wasn't done) Gain entry to lock up by forcing or cutting padlock (done), remove and renew padlock (no new padlock was fitted) . They also charged for the labour of the 2 men coming out for the water tank, they were in the building for about 10 minutes and it cost £16.45, how much do they get paid an hour? I will be contacting them to tell them I won't be paying for parts of the bill. I know its only £24.59 for my share but they just seem to think they can charge for anything and get away with it

Sunshine12

aidanbree wrote: »

My factor (MacFie) for my southside flat charges around 400 a year each for building insurance. I can get an insurance policy privately for far less.

When I questioned the cost previously, I was told I could not opt out of the common policy. Is this correct?

Correct. However if its privately owned along with rest of block you may be able to change the factor (depending on how long factor has been in place and what you title deeds state re time periods). Some factors have a separate insurance policy for each of their "developments" and some have an overall policy for all. If its an overall policy and lots of claims are made then the insurance premium goes up which is then more costly for everyone who lives in properties factored by them.

danski37

stobieside wrote: »

I too live in a Glasgow tenement and we are seriously considering ditching our factor and doing the work ourselves. Are there printed guidelines that we can get hold of to make sure we cover everything? Thanks!

Just been reading through this thread. Thanks to all who have contributed. Interesting stuff.

We are considering changing factors. We're with Grant & Wilson. We inherited them when we moved in in 2005. We live in a close with 3 other households, 2 of which are owner occupiers, one of which is rented out to students. As I understand it a clear majority ie 3 in our case would be needed to change to a different service.

Self-factoring sounds tempting, but I'm not sure it would be practicable in our case.

Therefore I am keen to explore alternatives. Does anyone have any positive recommendations? Don't want to simply jump from frying pan into the fire.

At present, having checked our bills closely, we seem to be paying £104 per quarter for our building insurance - seems steep to me. On top of that we pay £13 a quarter management charge, and various other regular bits and bobs for stair cleaning, stair lighting etc.

Anyone reading this with Charing Cross Housing Association? I've heard they might be reasonable, cost-wise and service-wise.

danski37

Just found out we can opt out of the building insurance provided via our factors next may. can anyone recommend any good policy providers?

jennifernil

Our daughter has a flat in a modern block in the West End of Glasgow, 14 flats in the block. There are a lot of problems now coming to light with shoddy workmanship in the original build, plus there is a lift to maintain, so her costs are quite high. She pays £40 per month plus insurance, which I think was about £230 this year (x14 for the whole building).

Those of you in the older stone tenements will have higher rebuilding costs than a modern building, so that will affect your premiums.

Her £40 covers cleaning etc, and the factors fee, but not any big repairs. The factor's fee is £100 per flat per year at present. They use Forsyth in Glasgow now, who do a much better job than the previous lot.

jackie1969uk

Anyone have any advice on 2 common repair charges for gutter cleaning and replacement of back garden clothes poles costing my quarter share of £178.23 in Glasgow 4 in a block. I am a single parent owning my own home on income support, with carers allowance and dla for one child, anyone have any information on who can help towards paying the bill. I dont have that amount of money spare.

GHA management are no help say nothing to do with them. Benefits office I applied before and they didnt pay £24 previous charge a couple of years ago.

Must be some help out there available for work they just do when it is under the maximum.

pramsay13

danski37 wrote: »

Anyone reading this with Charing Cross Housing Association? I've heard they might be reasonable, cost-wise and service-wise.

We've been with Charing X for about 8 years and found them good all round to deal with. They're actually about to pull out of our close due to non-payers but the rest of us are lobbying them to stay.