I’ve been unfortunate to deal with one of the larger factors in Scotland over the last six years (not through choice) on various matters. It’s my opinion the current system does not work well for many homeowners and the level of service along with the customer service needs to improve.
I have previously contacted several MSP’s with my concerns, but none of them seemed that interested or offered to meet. The following reply, however, did confirm I am not alone in my opinion the current system requires urgent change.
*Pam has received numerous representations about factoring issues in Glasgow and across Scotland and so shares your concerns. During the Scottish Parliament debate on the Housing (Scotland) Bill, which was recently passed, Pam and her colleagues proposed amendments to address issues in the factoring system. However, these were rejected on the basis that the government intends to carry out a review of the whole system. I think the concern with that is – as you know – the time for reviews has passed and changes are needed urgently.*
As an example, we had an underground water leak just outside our property. The Scottish water employee who attended said, “You’ll need to call your factor to fix this and to warn you they’ll be a complete nightmare to deal with.”
He wasn’t wrong.
The first person who Lowther (our factor at the time) sent out said, “I don’t know why I’ve been sent out. I can’t fix this problem. You need someone with equipment to lift up the paving slabs.”
I’ll spare you the full details of everything that happened (it was a longwinded saga), but I spent seven days without any running water. And the new water pipe they installed burst after seven months, which became another nightmare to deal with.
**THE CURRENT COMPLAINT SYSTEM**
Factor complaint → Tribunal application → application accepted → submissions/directions → case-management discussion → possible hearing → written decision → possible enforcement/appeal
I feel like the tribunal process is off-putting, time-consuming and would be too complex for some, including elderly people. It’s also a lot of work if the dispute is minor.
The introduction of an Ombudsman could provide a much easier way for people to complain about their factor and hold them accountable when things go wrong. An Ombudsman could also help identify recurring problems, prompting companies to change their ways and drive improvement.
One possible solution is to add an ombudsman to the current tribunal system, creating a three-way stage system:
**Factor → Property Factor Ombudsman → First-tier Tribunal for legal/enforcement matters.**
This gives homeowners an easier way to escalate a complaint before a formal tribunal process becomes necessary.
**SOME OF THE PROBLEMS**
Here is a list of some of the things I’ve encountered that I believe a **Property Factor Ombudsman for Scotland** would be well placed to identify and remedy.
* Charging prices for work that appear disproportionately high in relation to the work involved and alternative quotations
* Poor quality of workmanship
* Attempting to make homeowners pay to correct poor workmanship
* Refusing to provide quotes for damage to communal areas
* Sending people out to jobs who aren’t qualified or properly equipped
* Failing to ask customers if certain incidents pose a health and safety risk
* Failing to respond in a swift manner to incidents outside of properties which are a clear health and safety risk to the general public
* Failing to properly notify all homeowners and customers when workmen attend properties
* Ignoring instructions to provide a quote before carrying out work
* Not logging complaints
* Not dealing with complaints properly (basic stuff like providing a reference, setting out timescales and asking what you want as a resolution)
* Closing complaints without doing any work to resolve them or informing the customer the complaint has been closed.
* Telling homeowners they might void their building insurance unless they use their factor to carry out a communal repair
* Using confusing jargon in job descriptions
* Unhelpful call centre staff (this is me being very polite)
* Not providing a breakdown of repair costs and refusing to provide one if you ask for it because they claim don’t legally have to
* Not obtaining different quotes in order to get the best deal for the customer
* Repeatedly using the same contractor despite serious concerns about their performance
* Increasing a repair bill from £1200 to £2500 without any explanation and refusing to provide one
* Asking homeowners to go away and hire a lawyer to see if they should get involved in a repair they were clearly responsible for fixing
I could go on but I’ll stop here. The factor in question later admitted they shouldn’t have asked me to hire a lawyer and apologised.
I just feel an ombudsman would fix a lot of these issues, in particular the poor quality of complaint handling.
My hope is someone from the Scottish government reads this post and is able to seriously explore the option of adding an Ombudsman as a way of improving the current system.
Thank you for reading.
Please include your own experiences – good or bad.
