Introduction
For some years the City of Edinburgh Council (‘the Council’) has acted as the property factor for your block in looking after both the communally owned parts of the block and also some parts which, though not communally owned, all owners have a liability to maintain (‘ the common parts’).
A property factor is a person or organisation who is appointed by the owners in a block to look after the maintenance and management of the common parts on behalf of the owners.
The title deeds for properties set out owner rights and responsibilities for the common parts and the appointment of a property factor by the owners is simply the owners delegating these powers to a third party, that is the property factor. As such the property factor has no greater powers on behalf of the owners than the owners have themselves individually. The property factor is simply an agent acting on behalf of the owners.
This role was originally carried out by the Council on an informal basis until the introduction of the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 (‘the Act’) on 1 October 2012.
This act did three things:
- It introduced a mandatory registration process for all property factors. The Council is now registered as a property factor under number 000350.
- It introduced a mandatory Code of Conduct for all property factors to follow. This included a requirement for all property factors to send out to owners a written statement of the services provided by the property factor. This document constitutes that written statement of services.
- It introduced a complaints procedure for any owner dissatisfied with the actions or failure of their property factor.
This Written Statement of Services has been produced in accordance with the act and describes the service levels and arrangements between the Council, as property factor and the homeowners of the factored properties which, it should be noted, includes the Council as an owner of some of the properties in the block.
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You can get printed copies of this document by emailing Multistorey.Billing@edinburgh.gov.uk