Search for the best property factor in Edinburgh and you get star ratings, a Reddit thread and a comparison site. Useful, but none of them know your building. A factor that suits a 1890s stair in Marchmont may be the wrong choice for a 2015 block with a lift, a plant room and a car park gate, and the other way round.
So this guide does not rank anyone. It gives you the twelve questions that separate a factor who will manage your building well from one who will manage it quietly badly, and tells you what a good answer sounds like. We are a factor ourselves, so read the answers we would give with that in mind, and ask everybody the same questions.
Before you ask anything: three free checks
The Scottish Property Factor Register. Every factor operating in Scotland must be registered. Search the register on the Scottish Government website. Unregistered means do not proceed, whatever else they say.
Housing and Property Chamber decisions. The First-tier Tribunal publishes every decision against a factor, with the factor's name. Search the decisions database for anyone you are considering. One finding in ten years is a data point. A pattern is a verdict.
Reviews, read properly. Star ratings count, but read the text. Reviews that praise a named person for chasing a repair tell you more than five stars with no words. And a single angry review from a building in the middle of a dispute tells you less than it seems to.
The twelve questions
1. Can we see your Written Statement of Services before we decide?
Every factor must give owners a Written Statement of Services under the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011. It sets out what they do, what they charge, how they bill, how they handle debt and how the appointment ends. A factor who will not share it before you sign is asking you to buy without reading the label. The answer you want is a link, the same day.
2. What is in the management fee, and what is charged on top?
Ask for the fee per property per month, whether it includes VAT, and the list of things that cost extra: major works project management, sale enquiries, paper copies, meetings beyond the standard. There is no right number, but there is a right shape: a fixed fee you can calculate in advance, and an itemised list of extras. Our guide to factor fees explains what the rest of the invoice is.
3. Do you earn anything from contractors or insurers?
Commission on contractor invoices and on buildings insurance is common in the sector and often undisclosed. Ask the question in both halves: anything from contractors, and anything from insurance. The honest answers are "no", or a percentage with the pounds it comes to for your building. The answer to be wary of is a change of subject. For the record, we take no commission from contractors, and on the block insurance policy we take 5% and publish it, in pounds, for every development.
4. Where is our money held?
Owners' money, including the float and any sinking fund, should sit in a client account separate from the factor's own money, and the factor should be able to tell you how much your development holds at any time. Ask what happens to the balance if the factor goes out of business and what happens to it if you leave. Good factors have crisp answers to both because they have thought about it.
5. How will we see what we are paying for?
A factor's job is to spend your money well and show you. Ask whether you can see contractor invoices, not just a summary line; whether there is a portal, and what is actually in it; and whether the annual financial statement arrives on time. "Transparent" is a word. A portal where you can open the gardener's invoice is a fact.
6. What happens in the first ninety days?
The first months set the pattern. A good factor will describe a sequence: a handover with the outgoing factor, a recorded condition survey of the building so everyone knows what was inherited, insurance and essential contracts moved across without a gap, then a review of contracts and condition before anything is changed. A factor who promises transformation by a date has not done many handovers.
7. How do you plan maintenance, and who decides?
Ask whether they produce a maintenance plan with a horizon of several years, how it is costed, and how owners vote on it. The point of a plan is fewer surprises: a roof that is budgeted for in year three rather than discovered in year three. Ask also how they make decisions under your deeds and the Tenement Management Scheme, because a factor who does not know the difference will get the vote wrong.
8. How quickly do you respond, and how do we reach you?
Get numbers, not adjectives. Calls answered within what time, emails within what time, and what happens out of hours when a pipe bursts at eleven at night. Then test it: phone the office before you appoint them and see who answers. Our own commitments are calls answered within one working day and emails within three, and we publish them so you can hold us to them.
9. How do you choose contractors, and can we keep ours?
A factor with a short list of trusted local trades, rated on feedback from owners and paid once the work is confirmed, will usually serve you better than one with a national framework. Ask how a contractor gets on the list and how one comes off it. And if your building already has a gardener or a cleaner it likes, ask whether you can keep them. The answer should be yes.
10. What happens when an owner does not pay?
Every building has one eventually. Ask how the factor chases arrears, at what point a late payment charge applies and how much it is, when they use a Notice of Potential Liability on the title, and whether the rest of the owners end up covering the shortfall in the meantime. The answer tells you whether they have a process or a hope. Our guide to missing shares explains the mechanics.
11. Have you managed a building like ours?
Lifts, heat networks, sprinklers, cladding, gated car parks and commercial units on the ground floor each bring their own regulation, contractors and failure modes. A factor who has never run a heat network will learn on your building. Ask for examples of similar buildings and what went wrong on them, because something always did, and how they handled it is the useful part of the answer.
12. How do we leave if it does not work out?
The best test of a factor's confidence is how easily they let you go. Ask the notice period, whether there are termination charges beyond fees for work already done, and how they handle the handover to a successor. A factor that makes leaving difficult is telling you how they expect to keep you. Our guide to changing factor explains what the law allows.
Five answers that should end the conversation
- They are not on the Property Factor Register.
- They will not share the Written Statement of Services before appointment.
- They promise a specific saving before they have seen your deeds, your accounts or your building.
- They cannot say what they earn from insurance.
- They cannot name a time within which they answer the phone.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the best property factors in Edinburgh?
There is no official ranking and no regulator league table. The nearest things to objective evidence are the Property Factor Register (are they allowed to operate), the Housing and Property Chamber decisions database (have they been found against), and reviews read for their content rather than their stars. Beyond that, the best factor is the one that answers the twelve questions above well for a building like yours.
What is the difference between a property factor and a property manager?
In Scotland the legal term is property factor, and it carries a statutory code of conduct and a register. "Property management" and "block management" are used by some firms, mainly those also operating in England, where the law and the vocabulary are different. If a firm manages common parts for owners in Scotland, it is a factor whatever it calls itself, and it must be registered.
How much should a property factor cost in Edinburgh?
Management fees are published in each factor's Written Statement of Services and are usually quoted per property per month. Our own fee is £16.79 a month including VAT for a flat in a block. Compare the fee alongside what it includes and what is charged on top; a low fee with a long extras list is not the saving it looks like.
Can we choose a factor for a new build development?
Not at first, usually. The developer appoints the first factor and writes the appointment into the deeds, often with a tie in period, commonly around three years from completion, during which the owners cannot remove them. Once that period ends, the owners can change factor by whatever procedure the deeds set out, or by a simple majority under the Tenement Management Scheme where the deeds are silent. Check the deeds for the end date; after that, the practical difficulty is organising the vote, not the law.
Do we need a factor at all?
Not by law. A small, simple block with willing owners can manage itself. Larger buildings and anything with a lift, a heat network or cladding usually cannot, because somebody has to hold the statutory duties, the client money and the chasing. If you are weighing it up, our switching guide has a section on going without a factor.
General information only. Individual title deeds and circumstances differ.
AboveBoard Homes is a property factor for modern developments across Edinburgh and the Lothians. Ask us the twelve questions; we will answer every one in writing. Book a call with no obligation attached.
