Craig Gorman Ltd

New Smoke Alarm Legislation
A radical shake-up of fire safety legislation for all properties in Scotland is due to be implemented.
The new legislation affects all homeowners, landlords, housing associations and business in Scotland and will come in to effect by February 2021.
... The legislation relates to smoke/heat detection & carbon monoxide alarms in properties, including the number fitted and how they are installed.
All properties will now need to have linked smoke & heat detection alarms in rooms that have high levels of activity or are deemed at higher risk, such as kitchens or living rooms.
Battery operated smoke alarms will need to be replaced with systems that are either hard-wired or wireless in to the property for greater reliability.
A typical property will have a smoke detector in the hall, living room (room most lived in) and heat detector in the kitchen. If the house is over two floors an additional detector is required upstairs on the landing. All the detectors need to be interlinked to each other.
The purpose of the new legislation is to reduce the numbers of deaths and serious injuries in Scotland as a direct result of house fires. On average, 50 people are killed and 1,300 are injured every year in house fires in Scotland.
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What is the real cost of your management fee? A lot of managing agents will quote their fee as £260 + VAT as an example, but is this the real cost. Be careful of hidden charges such as insurance commission, prefer contractors fee, markup of invoices etc. When you take these into account their fee jumps up significantly, so instead of paying £260 + VAT the real fee is nearer £400 + VAT. Now there is nothing wrong with doing this, as along as they declare all monies received. So ask the question. It may will be these are hidden within their Written Statement of Services. It should be noted some managing agents don’t charge any additional fees and only receive their management fee.

When instructing contractors to carry out works on your development. Always ask if the managing agent charges them a fee to be on their preferred list or if they markup their invoices. Remember if they do this it is an additional charge to the development as the contractor will in general add this cost to their invoice.

When purchasing your property you will generally pay up front a float either directly or through your solicitor. The float can be any amount from £50 to £600 plus. The float is important to ensure monies in the development bank account for necessary maintenance and repairs. But how much is returned when you sell your property. Always ask this question as the managing agent may apply as sales fee for processing the sale through their system. This can be anything from £40 + VAT to them keeping the full float payment.

When putting your factoring contract out to tender always ask the managing agent what commission do they receive from their broker. Generally the commission will be around 35% of the policy with the managing agent taking anything from between 15% to 25%. Also ask what they do for receiving their cut of the commission.

Do you live in a factored development and are unhappy with the service you receive from your current managing agent.
Maybe you’ve looked into changing managing agent, but the complexity seems too daunting or you just don’t have the time.
We are on hand to help and take all the stress and hassle away, with more than 17 years experience in Property Factoring and a BSc in Estate Management. We have the knowledge and hands on experience to ensure we deliver the best possible serv...ice.
We start with a meeting the current residents committee/association and from our initial consultation we put together bespoke tender documentation.This is used to invite a selection of Property Factors to tender against ensuring consistency of cost and service. This make the comparison process very easy to pick both factor and one that provides best value for money.
We are completely independent and have no affiliation to any managing agent nor do we accept any commission from any managing agent.
Ultimately the final decision on managing agent will be that of the residents committee/association.
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