Factoring (Property and Estate Management Services)
About us
We are a small team of three Property & Estate Management (P&EMS) Officers:
- Jim Noble
- Marlene Roger
- Ray Edmonstone
with a dedicated Administrator for the team:
- Emma Lawie
The Officers split their time between site visits and office-based work. They carry out site visits to over 160 schemes, approximately 130 of which are inspected every month.
If you would like your Officer to visit your scheme for a specific reason please get in touch so we can arrange this.
Between us our team have decades of experience in the social landlord and housing sector across a range of services. This helps us in our commitment to providing you with a competitive, customer focused and value for money service that we can be proud of.
Not just a social housing landlord
We also work for and with our subsidiary companies.
Let’s Choose Leasing
Provides homes for mid-market and market rent.
TLC Housing Maintenance
Provides kitchen and bathroom installations in our social rent properties. TLC also provides other repairs and maintenance services for all customers such as paint works and electrical works. We are continuing to increase TLC’s remit and in the future hope to have them carrying out a broad range of repairs and maintenance works on our behalf.
What We Do
We oversee the provision of a range of factoring services to sharing owners and factored customers of Grampian Housing Association, tenants of Let's Choose and other local housing associations.
Typically, such services include stair cleaning, bulk bin cleaning & communal window cleaning (in flatted developments), open space maintenance (landscaping) and repairs to communal areas.
The cleaning service to many of our schemes in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire is provided by an in-house mobile team. In rural areas these services are mainly provided by our rural cleaners. In the Elgin and Moray areas our in-house Caretaking Team provide these services in the majority of our schemes.
Where some or all services are provided to a scheme by a third-party external factor/management company, we handle some basic administration such as processing invoices, circulation of relevant correspondence and information to our customers and act as a liaison if there are areas of concern or issues to address.
How We Charge for Our Services
The costs of these services are charged directly to customers in the form of a factoring service charge.
Currently, Grampian Housing Association ‘front funds’ all of the relevant charges incurred in the provision of both our in-house services and those provided by third parties. We review all of these charges annually across the organisation for all customers including tenants, owners and shared owners and at the start of each financial year, you will be advised of your annual charge. You may pay this monthly or annually. These charges will cover the cost of the previous year’s services. This way you will always pay an actual cost and not an estimated cost.*
This effectively means your costs have already been paid by Grampian Housing Association and your factoring service charge is to recover these payments. We add a 15% administration fee to any major or extraordinary works such as communal block redecoration works or roof repairs. These repairs are normally dealt with separately and charged outwith your annual service charge.
The annual service charge review will provide you with a complete breakdown of all the services your scheme/block has been provided with for the previous 12-month period and show the actual costs of these and whether they have been provided by an in-house team or an external contractor/supplier.
A factoring fee is applicable for every factored customer dependent on whether you receive some or all of the following services;
- Open space maintenance (landscaping)
- Communal cleaning
- Communal repairs
*Estimated costs may apply in the case of brand new developments for up to the first 12 months of operation.
Memberships and Qualifications
Our team are always working towards improving and increasing their knowledge and ensuring they keep up to date with ever changing legislation.
The Association is a member of the Property Managers Association Scotland Limited (PMAS) which promotes high standards of property management amongst its members.
Currently, two of our officers are members of the Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM) which is a professional body for residential property management specialists. The IRPM provides nationally accredited qualifications, guidance and resources to assist property managers with their roles.
We adhere to the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 Code of Conduct for Property Factors which came about as a result of the Scottish Government’s acknowledgement of, and commitment to “improve the condition of Scottish tenements to ensure that Scotland’s housing stock can continue to provide safe and sustainable homes for the future.”
Grampian Housing Association is a member of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) and a significant number of our staff are also members of the Chartered Institute for Housing (CIH).
Contact Us
You can contact your Officer by email to discuss issues relating to your factoring account, the sale or purchase of your property or to request they check a specific issue at their next site visit to your scheme/block.
Marlene Roger marlene.roger@grampianhousing.co.uk
Jim Noble jim.noble@grampianhousing.co.uk
Ray Edmonstone ray.edmonstone@grampianhousing.co.uk
If you are unsure who your Officer is, or have a general query please direct this in the first instance to factoring@grampianhousing.co.uk
To report a repair please contact repairs@grampianhousing.co.uk or call the Customer Response Unit on 01224 202900.
If you are a sharing owner and have a query regarding your ownership please contact ownership@grampianhousing.co.uk
If you have any queries about the factoring services provided by the Association or if you are interested in asking us to provide your scheme/block with a factoring service please contact the Customer Response Unit on 01224 202900 or email factoring@grampianhousing.co.uk
Alternatively you can write to us at Grampian Housing Association, Huntly House, 74 Huntly Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1TD.