Dealing with our Customers’ Communications and Enquiries

Our dedicated factoring teams are on hand to deal with our customers’ enquiries along with handling correspondence from professional representatives and others relating to matters arising from the day to day factoring of common property.

Our teams can assist with the following:

• Arranging and administering maintenance of common property by appointing contractors and service suppliers.
• Arranging and administering maintenance, where appropriate, of landscaped areas, play parks, woodland areas and so on by appointing contractors and service suppliers.
• Entering into contracts with contractors and service suppliers.
• Investigating complaints of inadequate work or service from contractors and service suppliers and pursuing them to remedy these.
• Checking contractors’ and service suppliers’ invoices when rendered and apportioning the cost due by each homeowner.
• Exercising financial controls including payment of contractors’ and service suppliers’ invoices (subject to the availability of homeowner funds).
• Issuing common charges accounts to homeowners at regular intervals for common works and services, property management fees and, if appropriate, insurance premiums.
• Dealing with homeowners’ communications and enquiries.
• Handling correspondence, enquiries and reports from professional representatives and others relating to matters arising from the day to day factoring of common property.
• Meeting homeowners, contractors, service suppliers, insurance brokers, local authorities and other third parties as appropriate.
• Attending the property periodically (these visits can be arranged to suit homeowners).
• Advising on maintenance and repair, redecoration and improvements where it may be considered necessary.
• Attending periodic and annual general meetings of homeowners and tendering advice and guidance on property factoring issues.
• Providing contractors’ emergency out of hours contact information.
• Collecting and administering homeowners’ advance funds and sinking/reserve funds where appropriate.
• Placing insurance cover through HPMS’s broker, where appropriate, for buildings, property owners’ liability, lifts, employers’ liability and so on.
• Intimating insurance claims relating to common property, where appropriate, under insurance policies placed by HPMS.
• Enforcing debt recovery procedures for unpaid common charges accounts, including instruction of legal action.
• Providing advice and assistance concerning the formation of a Proprietors’ Association.

Our teams are regularly asked to provide assistance with matters arising of a private nature, issues between neighbours and issues of an anti-social nature, such as:

• Refuse Collection and Recycling
• Smoking within Common Areas
• Unauthorised or inappropriate vehicle parking
• Noisy or disruptive neighbours
• Leaking overflow pipes
• Satellite Dishes

Our experienced people are able to assist our customers by directing them to the appropriate body or party in a position to assist them with this type of communal issue, however we are unable to take action over such private matters which fall outwith our Core Factoring Services.

To ensure our customers receive the highest level of customer service, we will try and deal with all telephone calls made to our office immediately, however where this is not possible we endeavour to return telephone calls by the end of the next working day. Calls may be monitored for education and training purposes.

Should our customers write to us, we endeavour to respond to all enquiries received in writing (including electronically) within 7 working days of receipt, however if more time is required to respond, this will be notified to our customer within that period.

Our people will always communicate with our customers in a polite, courteous and professional manner and under no circumstances will our people communicate with customers in a way which is misleading, false, abusive, intimidating or which threatens the customer. All of the Hacking and Paterson team are instructed not to deal with abusive or intimidating communications either by telephone or in writing from a homeowner, or their representatives.

To discover the Hacking and Paterson team involved in the factoring of your property, visit your My H&P Web portal here.