STATEMENT OF SERVICES

1 ANY STREET

Property Factor Reg No.  PF000114 

Ref No: 10001

     A.  AUTHORITY TO ACT

D & I Scott Property Management were appointed to act as property factors for the above property by the majority of homeowners with effect from 1st January 2021.

     B.  SERVICES PROVIDED

D & I Scott Property Management will provide quality Management Services as follows:

(a)        Arrange and maintain a Common Insurance Policy as required by the Deed of Conditions, or as instructed by the co-owners.  The insurance policy will be RICS index linked.  Property revaluation surveys are carried out as requested and agreed by the majority of owners.  A Summary of Cover will be issued to each insured owner at the commencement of management or where a new owner purchases a flat insured through us.  An individual insurance schedule can be sent by post or email attachment on request.  The full policy document can be downloaded from our website – https://www.dandiscott.co.uk/insurance/

(b)       Ensure that all necessary common repairs notified to us are instructed promptly.  Target times for repairs are as shown over in Note 1.  As factors for the property D & I Scott have delegated authority to instruct repairs up to a limit of £150 per flat.  We will instruct repairs up to a limit of £150 per flat except in certain circumstances where we reserve the right to collect funds in advance from the co-owners.  The limit will not apply in the case of emergency repairs e.g. underground burst pipes.  The limit will be reviewed annually.

(c)        Obtain 3 estimates for larger repairs likely to exceed £150 per flat.  Copies of the estimates will be circulated to all of the owners.  The owners will be required to pay for their share of the cost of the repair in advance.  We will instruct the work when we are in receipt of funds from all of the owners, or in certain circumstances at our discretion, when we are in receipt of funds from the majority of the owners.

(d)      Notify all owners of any large repairs required i.e. those repairs where we have obtained quotes costing more than £150 per flat.  We may also at our discretion advise owners of repairs costing less than £150 per flat.  In these circumstances the co-owners will be given the opportunity to object to the repair and where the majority of owners object then the repair will not be instructed.

(e)        Calculate the share of the costs of repairs due by each owner in accordance with the Deed of Conditions or by the agreement of the co-owners.  Your share of the cost for common repairs is 12.50 %.

(f)         Carry out inspections of the property with the aim of visiting each property a minimum of once every 2 years.  We carry out a visual inspection of the property, excluding for example the roof, attic and any area that is hidden or inaccessible, on an annual basis, subject to access on the day of visit.  Any minor repairs noted at the time of inspection may be instructed at our discretion.  We will instruct a contractor to clean the gutters and inspect the roof area at all properties on an annual basis, except where the majority of owners have indicated that they do not require this service.  If any co-owner would like a full survey of the property, which will incur an additional cost, we will obtain a quote from a surveyor and send this to all owners to seek agreement to proceed.  We will instruct the surveyor once we have obtained the agreement of the majority of owners at the property.

(g)         We will apply an additional fee on large repair projects involving grant assistance.  This will always be communicated to all owners before the repair project commences.

(h)         If you require a contractor in an emergency while our office is closed, emergency contractor contact details are listed on our answerphone message by calling 0141 649 1011 and are also listed on our website – https://dandiscott.co.uk/emergency-contacts/

Note 1.  We will always instruct repairs as soon as possible.  However, it must be appreciated that we instruct independent contractors to carry out repairs and we have no overall control over their timescales.  With that in mind we aim to achieve the following targets.

1. Emergency repairs e.g. burst pipes causing flooding, within 24 hours
2. Locks or door entry system repairs within 24 hours
3. Minor repairs within 2 weeks
4. Major repairs within 4 weeks of collection of all funds from owners

The Management Fee per flat, with effect from 1^st December 2022, will be £144.00 + VAT per annum.  The Management Fee is charged in arrears and may be paid quarterly on receipt of invoice or monthly by Standing Order.  The Management Fee will be reviewed annually on 1^st December.  Invoices will be issued in February, May, August and November on or around the 20^th of the month.  If you do not receive your invoice by the end of the relevant month please contact us as soon as possible.  Invoices are issued quarterly in arrears and all repairs and services listed on the invoice will have been paid to the various contractors by D & I Scott by the end of the relevant quarter.  Invoices are payable upon receipt and payment methods are listed on the reverse of the invoice.  Payment methods include online through our website, via your own online banking, by card by telephoning our office, by cash or card at our office and by cheque.

At the commencement of management, the owners of each flat will deposit with us the sum of £50.00, or such other sum if specifically mentioned in the Deed of Conditions, as a Property Maintenance Float.  If an owner sells their flat the float deposit will be refunded after settlement of all outstanding accounts.  When a flat is sold, or where we no longer manage the property, we will aim to issue the final account for the flat within 2 months of the date of sale, or the date of cessation of management.  The final account will include an apportionment fee of £50.00 for liaising with solicitors regarding the flat sale and for apportioning the common charges to the date of sale.

If an owner sells their flat we will request a retention from the proceeds of the sale from the owner’s solicitor to cover the costs of the final account.  If the solicitor is unable or unwilling to confirm that a retention will be held then the owner will be required to lodge the amount of the retention with our office, and any overpayment will be refunded when the final account is issued.

Failure to pay invoices may result in the implementation of our debt recovery procedure, which is detailed below:

If an invoice remains outstanding for more than 28 days a reminder will be issued.  

If one or more invoices remain outstanding for a period of 60 days after the issue of the invoice then we may apply an Administration Fee of £25.00 to each subsequent invoice issued until the debt is paid in full.  The level of the Administration Fee will be reviewed annually on 1^st December.  

If the debt remains outstanding we will notify the owner in writing of our intention to instigate Legal Action unless the debt is paid in full within 7 days.  We may at our discretion issue a further letter notifying the owner of our intention to instigate Legal Action unless the debt is paid in full. We will advise the owner that free and impartial debt advice is available from not-for-profit debt advice bodies and provide information on this.  If the debt remains unpaid we may employ the services of a Debt Recovery Agent.  If the debt still remains unpaid we will commence Legal Action for recovery of the debt, unless an arrangement has been entered into to pay off the debt.

We may also register a Notice of Potential Liability, in terms of the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004, on the flat which requires to be renewed every three years and which will remain in force until the debt is repaid in full.  The debtor will be responsible for all costs associated with the Legal Action e.g. court dues, legal fees, the cost of the registration and discharge of the Notice of Potential Liability and any Sheriff Officer’s fees.

If a debt is disputed the owner must send us a written complaint outlining the basis of the dispute within 28 days of the issue of the relevant invoice.  No Legal Action will be taken until the dispute resolution process has been completed.  If an owner submits a complaint to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland which is accepted, all Legal Action will halt until the conclusion of the complaint.  Once the complaint is resolved, if there is still a debt outstanding, we will then instigate our debt recovery procedure as above.

If we are required to take the above Legal Action then the invoices and legal costs associated with that Legal Action will be shown in a separate statement of account and no further quarterly invoices will be added to this account.  Quarterly invoices issued following the Legal Action will be issued to the current account.  If the invoices on the current account remain unpaid then the above process will be repeated until all invoices are paid in full.

For those clients paying monthly by Standing Order a Statement of Account will be issued once per year detailing all transactions on the account and the final debit or credit balance.  Standing Order payments will be reviewed annually and owners may be asked to increase or decrease their payment accordingly.  In circumstances where an owner refuses to increase their Standing Order payment, or stops making their monthly Standing Order payments, we may close their monthly account and transfer the balance to a quarterly invoice and thereafter issue invoices on a quarterly basis.

     D.  COMMUNICATION ARRANGEMENTS

Enquiries or complaints may be made by telephone, email or in writing.  Our opening hours are 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, we are closed for lunch from 12.30pm to 1.30pm.  We aim to answer verbal enquiries as they are received however if there is any information that is not immediately available, or if we are required to contact a third party e.g. a contractor, then we will telephone the owner back as soon as we have the available information, within 10 working days where possible.  The response can also be sent by written communication if requested.  All written enquiries will receive a response within 15 working days of receipt.

If you remain unsatisfied having made a verbal complaint then you must submit your complaint in writing or by email.  All written complaints will receive an initial response within 15 working days of receipt to allow for proper investigation.  If the complaint relates to work carried out by a contractor we will liaise with the said contractor to attempt to resolve any issues raised in the complaint.  If your complaint remains unresolved, it will be passed to a member of senior management, who will then investigate it thoroughly and thereafter write to you to outline the final decision regarding your complaint.  If you are still not satisfied you have the right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) at Glasgow Tribunals Centre, 20 York St, Glasgow G2 8GT.  Full details of our complaints procedure can be found on our website www.dandiscott.co.uk

Copy invoices or statements are available on request for a period of up to two years.  If you require copy invoices or statements please contact our office and copies can be sent by post or by email attachment.  Copies of contractor invoices will be made available for a period of up to 14 days from the issue of your quarterly invoice and can be sent by post or email attachment upon request.  A copy of this written statement of services can also be sent by post or by email attachment on request.

Copies of any other documents or polices/ procedures which owners may wish to view to help understand how we operate can be requested by phone, by email or by post.  Some documents, such as the summary of cover for buildings insurance, can be found on our website at www.dandiscott.co.uk  For any other documents or polices/ procedures we will either send a copy as an email attachment or by post.

     E.  DECLARATION OF INTEREST

D & I Scott Property Management has no financial or other interests in the property.

     F.  INFORMATION ABOUT THE 2011 ACT AND THE DUTIES IT PLACES ON PROPERTY FACTORS

In accordance with the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 we are required to register and to provide details of the properties we factor for entry on the Property Factors Register, which can be found at: https://www.propertyfactorregister.gov.scot/PropertyFactorRegister/

D & I Scott Property Management is registered on the Property Factors Register and our registered number is PF000114.  We are required by section 13(3) of the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 to take reasonable steps to ensure that our property factor registered number is included in any document sent to homeowners which relates to our duties under section 17(5) of the 2011 Act and/or this Code.

As a registered factor, in accordance with section 14(5) of the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 we must ensure compliance with the property factor Code.

     G.  HOW TO END THE ARRANGEMENT

If an owner sells their flat we will require at least one weeks’ notice in writing from their solicitor to ensure that we are able to comply with our duties under this Code.  There are no early termination charges applicable.

In order to terminate our management of the property you must adhere to the relevant clause in the Deed of Conditions and thereafter submit a written instruction to us giving a minimum of 1 month’s notice which must be signed by the majority of owners at the property.  If there is no relevant clause in the Deed of Conditions, further information can be found in the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004.

If our services are ended and a new factor is appointed, we will liaise with the incoming factor to ensure a smooth transition for any ongoing services which the owners wish to continue with.  We will also provide repair history and guarantees as requested by the incoming factor where it is in the legitimate interests of all parties involved.  We will not provide any personal information relating to any owner, including contact details, unless instructed in writing to do so by that owner.

     PRIVACY POLICY

Who we are 

D & I Scott Property Management are data controllers of the personal data you provide to us.  We may collect personal data by post, email, phone, the “contact us” form on our website or during meetings.  We only collect basic personal data which does not include any special categories of personal data.

What data we collect

The data that we hold on individuals includes names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and bank details in certain circumstances, ie where clients pay monthly by standing order.

This information is used for the provision of our service as property factors as per our written statement of services.  We do not collect any additional personal data that we do not require to fulfil our services as property factors.

For the provision of our services we may pass your personal data to certain trusted third parties which may include maintenance contractors, insurers, solicitors & recovery agents and local authorities.

We do not use your personal data for marketing purposes.  We will not transfer your data to a country outside of the UK and European Economic Area.  We do not pass your personal data to any third party for marketing purposes and we do not sell your personal data to any third parties.

We only keep personal data for as long as is necessary for the provision of our services as property factor and for compliance with regulatory legislation.  We routinely delete obsolete data in compliance with GDPR legislation.

Reasons for collecting personal data

GDPR sets out a number of reasons why a company requires to collect and process your personal data, the reasons relevant to D & I Scott are as follows.

We require to collect and process personal data to fulfil our obligations under the terms of our contract with our clients.

We also require to collect and process personal data where it is in our legitimate interests to do so.  This is a lawful reason to collect and process personal data where the data subject is a client of the data controller.

Your rights regarding your personal data

As per the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) you have several rights regarding the personal data we have collected.  These include –

The right to be informed about the processing of your personal data, which we do with this privacy notice which is available on our website or via a paper copy on request.

The right of access – you can request a copy of the personal data we hold.

The right to rectification – you can request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data is amended.

The right to erasure – you can request that your personal data is deleted if we no longer have a reason to store your personal data.

The right to restrict processing – you can request that your personal data is not processed in certain circumstances ie where the data is inaccurate.

The right to data portability – You can request that your personal data is transferred to you or another data controller.

The right to object to your personal data being used for marketing purposes, or being used when there is no longer a compelling reason for it.

You also have rights in relation to any automated decision making or profiling which may affect you, however D & I Scott do not use any automated decision making or profiling.

To make any requests regarding your personal data you can contact us at info@dandiscott.co.uk or D & I Scott Property Management, 1 Carment Drive, Glasgow, G41 3PP.

Complaints

If you are not satisfied with our response regarding any queries about your data, or you feel that your data has not been handled correctly, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.  You can find out how on their website at: www.ico.org.uk/concerns

We may make changes to this privacy policy from time to time, for example to keep up to date with new legal requirements, and these changes can be viewed on our website.