Property ownership is more often than not the single biggest asset our customers have and in our role as property factor we endeavour to ensure that adequate funding is ingathered on an ongoing basis from those with shared responsibility.
Upon entry to the property most homeowners will make payment of a property float. A figure is generally calculated which is suitable to meet the estimated maintenance and insurance requirements. The provision of a property float allows us to have a fund to draw from when maintenance, insurance and service costs are incurred.
Through the range of properties factored, costs are typically incurred for services such as:
- Insurance premiums
- Stair cleaning
- Communal electricity
- Grounds maintenance
- Building repairs
- Maintenance of common facilities such as lifts, fire fighting equipment and so on
- Decoration
- Lamp replacement
Once works are completed or services provided, invoices are received which often require being settled immediately or within a 30 day period. We have stringent procedures in place to ensure the accuracy of all contractors’ and service suppliers’ invoices received. Once satisfied, our teams ensure the costs are apportioned correctly with the share of the costs due by each homeowner being clearly identifiable. Our finance teams exercise diligent financial controls including payment of contractors and service suppliers invoices (subject to the availability of homeowner funds).
We issue common charges accounts to our homeowner customers at regular intervals (normally quarterly) for common works and services, management fees and, if appropriate, insurance premiums.
The biggest single risk to the maintenance of common property is a lack of funding. In this respect, we take the recovery of common outlays seriously and where common charges accounts remain outstanding, our Credit Control team is in place to enforce recovery through our debt recovery procedures.
We pride ourselves on our ability to recover our customers’ outlays with our stringent methods being vital to the successful factoring of their property.
For full details of our Debt Recovery Procedure please click here.
