Owners furious as factoring bill doubles without warning

Homeowners in the Gilmerton Road block say their usual charges are around 120 per flat for three months, but their most recent bill rose to 250.

They have written to demand an explanation from factors Hacking and Paterson, who they said had not consulted them on works.

Their complaint comes as the Office of Fair Trading carries out an investigation into Scottish factors, following complaints from the Scottish Consumer Council (SCC), which says there is a lack of transparency and competition in the market.

Douglas Wilson, 28, who runs a car valetting service, is one of the residents on Gilmerton Road.

He said: "In between bills there's no contact at all from the factors, so they don't tell you that they're going to be doing work or ask if we want anything done.

"On this bill, up pops 907.32 for clearing the gutters, but you don't know that the gutters have been cleaned, so you don't know to budget for it. The gutters are well above any tree line and it's not a leafy area anyway.

"The stairs are always the same and sometimes they take 220 for stair cleaning and sometimes it's 280. It makes me angry because it's not them that's footing the bill."

He said the company had made a number of other charges for repairs that the residents were not aware of.

Policy manager at the SCC, Jennifer Wallace, said: "Our research has shown that communications between property managers and the people they serve are often poor.

"Too many people are going through unnecessary stress because they're either in dispute with their property managers or aren't being told what's going on.

"This is not an isolated case. The number of householders unhappy with so many different property management firms led us to take our concerns to the Office of Fair Trading. In the meantime, the Scottish Government is developing an accreditation scheme to raise industry standards."

David Kingham, director of Hacking and Paterson, said the block's regular bill stood at around 130, and added: "The clients should know that there's gutter clearing carried out annually at the property which is all part of good maintenance. An annual inspection of the roof anchor is also part of health and safety guidance.

"Other smaller repairs would be things that the residents themselves will have asked for. Our factoring fee actually only increased by 1.50 a quarter in February."

Mr Kingham suggested that the residents set up a group to improve communications. He said: "We have to act on behalf of what we see to be in their best interests in the absence of specific instructions.

"By all means we would love to get together with the owners and find out what we're not doing for them which we could be."