Factoring

Factoring is a service provided by a property management company who act on behalf of owner-occupiers or shared owners to maintain areas that have a common interest to an excellent standard and then apportion the cost of the repairs to owners. Areas of common interest are the building structure, roofs, close and backcourt.

Your Deed of Condition is a legal document and details your responsibility and rights towards common repairs also known as a “burden”. Within the Deeds there might also be information regarding the management of the common areas such as the obligations and duties of the factor. The Deeds should also define the procedures for dealing with repairs and routine maintenance, provision for insurance, and explains the procedures for the factor to recover any outstanding debts.

Owners are expected to keep their property and communal areas well maintained. Owners are also expected to pay for common repairs and a management fee for their factoring services. You may be asked to pay a deposit towards common repairs. When you leave your deposit will be refunded and the new owner takes over your responsibilities.

As an owner you have the rights to make any alterations and amendments to your home in accordance with planning department regulations. However a home-owner can not make any changes to their property or common areas that will interfere with other owners rights or cause a nuisance in the common areas.

If you are experiencing anti-social behaviour from your neighbours that are not factoring related, e.g. loud noises, we recommend that you either talk to your neighbour, seek the help of the police or call the anti-social behaviour network.

If your neighbour is a tenant of OTHA, you can register a complaint and our Housing Services team will do our best to help. If your complaint is about another owner or a tenant of a private landlord then we will offer you advice on how to complain to the relevant agencies but we are unable to deal with matters not directly related to our factoring service.

Should you ever have a reason to be unhappy with our services or standard of work then in the first instance you should try and resolve your complaint with staff. However if you are not satisfied with our response then please request a copy of our Factoring Complaints Procedure.

When you have agreed a sale for your property please instruct your solicitor to inform us in plenty of time so that we can amend our records. We send a common charges invoice to your solicitor on the date of settlement. In the event of there being an outstanding balance at the date of sale your solicitor will normally deduct this from the proceeds of the sale.

If you pay by standing order, please remember to cancel this with your bank.

Should you ever have a reason to be unhappy with our services or standard of work then in the first instance you should try and resolve your complaint with staff. However if you are not satisfied with our response then please request a copy of our

Radio Teleswitch is the device electricity supplies use to remotely swithc large numbers of electricity meteres between different tariffs. Radio Teleswitch is also known as RTS.

RTS is used for some traditional multi-rate meters and was designed to support those who use electricity for their heating and hot water. This may include those who use electric storage systems, panel heaters or immersion heaters in water tanks - some of which typically charge up overnight.

If you have this set-up, your heating and hot water is likely to be controlled by a radio signal which tells your storage heaters when to charge and when your hot water heater should switch on. The system that controls the teleswitch signals is due to close on Monday 30th June 2025. Your electricity supplier may already have been in touch asking you to change your meter. If not, then please contact your energy supplier to check if your meter needs replacing. The Association is unable to arrange this for you as this is your responsibility.

Your electric storage heating and hot water could stop working if you do not have your radio teleswitch meter replaced before the radio frequency is turned off on 30th June 2025.

If you are a Scottish Power customer, you can email them on: smartservices@scottishpower.com.

For more information you can visit the following websites.

•Ofgem

•Citizens Advice

•Energy Networks Association