Charges and Fees

Oak Tree Housing Association is a 'not for profit' organisation and a registered charity. Most of our income comes from the rents of our tenanted properties. We also provide factoring services to owners who have a requirement as per deeds of conditions, to co-ordinate common repairs and landscape maintenance to ensure that our properties and estates are maintained for the benefit of all - owners and tenants.

The Association provides two types of service to owners:

Factored Property Service - This is the service we provide to owners in a tenemental property.

Common Landscape Maintenance - This is the service we provide to main door properties where there is common land and where the Association owns land where owners have a repairing obligation.

In line with the Property factors (Scotland) Act 2011, we will issue a Written Statement of Services to all owners. This will detail the service we provide, how this is to be paid for, and details of all the costs associated with our service as a factor. A generalised Written Statement of Service can be found below.

Your costs

You will only pay for your share of what our contractors have charged us for any works carried out to your building.

For Common Landscape Maintenance customers, we divide the total cost of any works by the number of tenants and owners in the area.

The Association is responsible for recovering the costs to tenants through their rent.

Our fees

The Association charges and fees to cover the costs of providing our Factored Service is £206.88 per annum effective 1 July 2023 (not applicable to Sharing Owners).

For Common Landscape Maintenance customers, we charge an Administration Fee of 15% (subject to a minimum charge of £3.00) to cover the costs of providing our service.

We charge fees to cover the staff time involved in organising contracts, monitoring works, apportioning costs, paying contractors, recovering debt and answering queries. This charge is reviewed each year taking into account the demands on our services from owners.

Your invoice

For Factored customers, invoices are sent twice a year, in March (for the period July to December of the previous year) and September (for the period January to June).

For Landscape Maintenance customers, invoices are sent out annually in May for the previous financial year 1 April to 31 March.

All invoices will detail the work done, the total cost, and your individual share.

The invoice should be paid within 28 days from the date it was issued.

If customers would prefer to spread the payment of their invoices we can arrange for owners to set up Direct Debit or Standing Order payments based on clearing the debt within 6 months. If you would like to discuss this option further, please contact a member of the Finance team on 01475 807000 or email finance@oaktreeha.org.uk

If you are having difficulty paying your bills, we can also offer details of a number of organisations who can offer you financial help and advice.

Debt Recovery

At present, the Association front funds the cost of works undertaken on behalf of owners by up to 9 months for factoring activities and up to 14 months for landscape maintenance activities, before invoicing owners for their share of the work. If owners' accounts are not cleared within a suitable timeframe, our tenants subsidise the outstanding debt, therefore, ensuring debts are fully paid in a timely manner, is an important aspect of our role as Factor.

We adopt a firm, but a flexible and reasonable approach to debt recovery and take action as early as possible.

If you do not pay your outstanding balance within 28 days, or have a payment plan in place, you will receive a reminder letter. If the outstanding balance remains unpaid after 14 days, then you will receive a further letter detailing the next course of action, which could mean the debt is passed to the Sherriff Officer, our Solicitor, or we will instruct Court Action where we will request a Decree for Payment to be granted.

Any costs incurred because of these procedures will be added to customers' accounts.

If your debt is over £250.00, the Association may instruct our solicitor to register a Notice of Potential Liability on your property, which means that the property cannot be sold without clearing the debt or a prospective buyer would have to agree to take on the debt before the sale could proceed. This notice will remain on your property for 3 years. Costs incurred by registering / deregistering this notice will be added onto owners' accounts.

Full details of our Debt Recovery Process