Factors debt on newly owned Scottish tenement

Idlemild

Hi,

I have recently purchased a flat and the common stairway and backcourt need repairs carried out. I had a meeting with the factors who tell me there is £7000 collective debt from other owners in the building and that they won't carry out any work unless they have funds upfront from them. I asked the factor property manager to conduct a site visit as they hadn't been out to evaluate the building in over a year, possibly more.
There is no stair cleaning as the owners opted out of this.
The common stairway has large chunks of plaster missing from the walls, broken and/or missing window panes in a number of the Windows. There is a communal cellar area in which rubbish has been dumped and the ceiling plasterwork has started to crumble and expose the woodwork underneath it.
I am keen to have this fixed but am now at a bit of a dead end unless I am willing to pay for everything myself. The building is in quite a deprived area of Glasgow and the owners may not actually have the funds to go ahead with any works.
The main question I have is where do I stand with the factors? Surely their debt collection procedure should have ensured that an outstanding bill of such a high amount should never have been left to accumulate. I have emailed them asking this question(waiting for an answer) and am willing to follow it through with a written complaint to them as I feel they have not been providing an effective service. It seems as if they have not followed up their collection of debt and have just left the building to its own devices. I will be receiving my first factors bill in a few weeks but I may be the only person who is paying it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

davidmcn

Any previous debt isn't your liability (unless there was a Notice of Potential Liability registered against the seller of your flat - but if there was then your solicitor would have told you). If the factors have paid out funds without being reimbursed then I can understand why they don't want to do anything else.

Have you discussed with any of the other owners, to get an idea of whether this is to do with current owners or previous ones?

Pixie5740

Talk to your neighbours to see if you can get to the bottom of it.

A friend of mine bought a new build in a development with about 100 flats. A number of owners didn't pay any factoring bills so eventually the cost was split between the others as a bad debt. He was livid.

Rosemary7391

Who is the factor? Mine does inspections more frequently than once a year despite severe apathy from other owners regarding repairs..

I believe there is a way for the council to either enforce repairs or provide support in the form of grants to eligible owners if the repairs are supported in the first place, but it won't pay for all of it. I'll dig out the link for you.

Edit: Link

Idlemild

Thanks for getting back to me everyone. My factor is Hacking and Paterson. The debt is with existing owners. I'm not liable for any of it as the person I bought the flat off of had his bill settled from the proceeds of the sale.

To make things harder, I'm working away from home at the moment and I am unable to follow anything up in person so its all being done through email! Ideally I would be able to go and speak to the other owners, that would help a lot.

Rosemary that info would be great, thank you

Rosemary7391

Idlemild wrote: »

Rosemary that info would be great, thank you

See my edit It's kind of a carrot-and-stick approach.

Pixie5740

Hacking & Paterson...yikes. I've had them as a factor before and they are bloody awful. I remember that any proposed work was always incredibly expensive, way more expensive than when the neighbours and I got quotes for exactly the same work. Definitely talk to the other owners it could be that the £7k is down to H&P ripping them off.

Thrugelmir

Idlemild wrote: »

Surely their debt collection procedure should have ensured that an outstanding bill of such a high amount should never have been left to accumulate.

People can't pay money they don't have. Doesn't matter how effective debt collection is. Ultimately there's a brick wall.

AdrianC

Thrugelmir wrote: »

People can't pay money they don't have. Doesn't matter how effective debt collection is. Ultimately there's a brick wall.

And, ultimately, if there's a bill needs splitting between ten flats, it'll be twice as much per flat if only five people can pay towards it.

Marktheshark

Sounds like you bought in to a slum.

sgun

I don't think the council would enforce a Statutory Notice as the repairs don't sound like they are hazardous or endangering anyone. That is pretty much the only time they would these days, up until a few years ago it was much easier to get the council to help but sadly no longer the case.


I think it would also be difficult to get the other owners to pay up - if they haven't done so yet they are unlikely to unless the factor pushes it.


So your only option is to try and get the factor to enforce their debt collection but as has been pointed out if they haven't got the money it would be pointless.


Or sell up and move somewhere without a factor, they are generally not worth the money that is paid to them. Sorry to not have more helpful answer. Whatever you do don't spend your own money on getting the issues fixed, it doesn't sound like it would be worthwhile investing in the property as it stands.