Factors taking you to court I previously posted regarding a factor taking me to court over unpaid charges that I considered unjustifiable. The person running the factor company prosecutes the cases in the small claims court himself. He will phone and e-mail offering a deal before the court proceedings start, and will continue the process outside the court itself before the case is heard. He'll tell you that he's dealt with dozens of such cases, and because there's no time the Sheriff will just split the difference and you'll have to pay half the charges anyway. You might as well pay him up front and save the expenses.
This is all complete nonsense. In my case the Sheriff was extremely hostile to the factor, ripped his case to shreds in fifteen minutes and dismissed it.
I realise people aren't keen to go to court, but if what you're being asked to pay is completely unjustified you've no reason to fear it.
Frank Plowright Frank Plowright - 24/06/2010 4:14:38 PM
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Well done - glad to see someone standing up to these often unscrupulous people. Money for old rope - I've been with more respectable ones and have never felt so fleeced in my life. THere must be some kind of legal formation that would allow people to easily self-factor.
anon - 25/06/2010 4:05:13 PM
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Congrats Frank!
I have to admit I would have cracked.
Has anyone here tried Self-Factoring. I cant believe how much we pay in a year. But can self-factoring work? What if you have non payers? Or absentee Landlords?
Pete - 26/06/2010 4:17:27 PM
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This is very encouraging. Thanks for letting us know. I'm glad you didn't allow yourself to be intimidated and that the Sheriff heard the case and made a fair decision.
electro - 30/06/2010 11:56:54 AM
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We are an ex-self factored tenement where I helped run the owners association by default because no one else bothered to once the original people moved out.
We moved over to Factoring when I made it clear that the choice was to take over the running of the self-factoring OR vote for a Factor - some didn't even return the voting slips as they neither wanted to pay for a Factor or lift a finger themselves.
It was a nightmare - 2 out of 8 of the owners refused to pay, one was abusive, and both didn't have any buildings insurance, either. Many contractors won't touch self-factored tenements as there is a reputation that getting paid by owners that are in dispute is a struggle.
Most of the owners wouldn't pull their thumb out of their **** to help in anyway (other than putting notes through my door telling me what needed to be fixed) or to criticise the quality of repairs/cleaning that they refused to help sort out. What they seemed to be expecting was a professionally building management at no effort or cost to themselves. The apathy was unbelievable.
The Shelter Scotland website provides excellent information on how to set up a Tenement Management Scheme (TMS)which will answer all your questions. There is a book you can buy on Amazon called the Tenement Handbook which helps people to understand about the infrastructure of the building and common repairs.
Unless you have a tenement where everyone is on friendly terms and they are all owner occupied, you will struggle to get the TMS off the ground and will spend hours every week running around trying to deal with arrears, organising repairs and being ignored by companies who won't provide quotes unless the building is factored.
The short answer about non-paying owners and absent landlords is that you can take them to court, perhaps put a charge against the property (Note of Liability) to enforce it but ultimately the other owners simply have to pay the missing share. Then you can expect to be door-stepped and verbally abused which is my experience of trying to persuade non-payers to cough up.
Bluey - 30/06/2010 11:59:14 AM
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The block I live in now is self-factored and has been for over 10 years. It works very well, but I suppose you're always just one sold flat away from an owner that refuses to contribute and no-one gets on with. Still, even if that were the case, I reckon splitting costs seven ways instead of eight would still work out cheaper than a factor and with none of the problems.
Frank Plowright - 30/06/2010 12:00:07 PM
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