Hansard

Colleagues, I hope that you will bear with me as I go through the fairly lengthy and technical list of amendments in this group.

I do not need to quote the Competition and Markets Authority’s conclusion that there was a “significant consumer detriment” in the private management of housing estates in Scotland to illustrate the point that I am attempting to make with my proposals to amend factoring legislation in Scotland. Nor do I need to raise the petitions that have been lodged in the Parliament by frustrated members of the public. I am sure that, in order to understand the situation, members need only look at their inboxes—if they are anything like mine, they will show that members have been contacted by many private housing estate residents who are entirely frustrated and deeply unhappy with their relationship with their factor. We have known for a long time that the balance of power in factoring relationships is skewed in favour of corporate interests. Back in 2011, my colleague Patricia Ferguson introduced a member’s bill, which is now the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011, to regulate factors. Fifteen years later, with more than 350 factors on the register and only three ever having been removed for a breach of the code of conduct, it is clear that although the 2011 act was a good start, much still needs to be done to bring more fairness to those relationships.

The Government has agreed that that is the case, and, going back as far as 2013, has been promising a code of conduct for land maintenance companies. The reason why the code has never been produced is not that there are too many legal complications or that the arguments for the code have been found to be wrong; it is, the Government has said, that it has other things to prioritise. Therefore, while constituents and colleagues have been living with these expensive and unfair factoring relationships, the Government has deprioritised work in the area, which is why I lodged my amendments. The factoring system in Scotland is not fair, and we should not wait another 15 years to look at further change. Through the Housing (Scotland) Bill, I have therefore proposed a number of substantive changes to the 2011 act, which, along with changes that my colleagues propose in their amendments, would rebalance the power in the relationship towards home owners.

I appreciate the work that you have done, convener, to ensure that home owners will be able to remove factors more easily, and I intend to support your amendments in this group if you move them. I also support the Government’s amendments in this area, and I acknowledge its attempt to make removal of a factor from the register easier.

I ask colleagues to support the amendments in the group that have been lodged by Sarah Boyack and Pam Duncan-Glancy, which will allow home owners to take a group action against factors to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland housing and property chamber in order to stand in solidarity with one other against corporate interests. That will also allow local authorities to adopt amenities on public housing estates. I have included an alternative to that approach, which would make adoption by local authorities mandatory, as was recommended by the CMA.

My amendments in this area all deal with increasing transparency and power for home owners. I would require all factors to publish their written statement of services with the home owners they are acting on behalf of. I would also require them to publish information about how much the services that they provide cost, and how much they have charged for services that they have carried out in previous years. I am also asking factors to let home owners know if they intend to sell their contract of services to another company. To me, it seems like a fairly base-level requirement of any contract of service that you are able to see what you have signed up for, what you are being charged for, who you have a contract with and what the services cost.

As the amendments are about rebalancing power away from the factor towards the home owner, I have also lodged amendments that provide more enforcement powers for the First-tier Tribunal against factors that have been found to be in contravention of the code of conduct. My amendments would allow the tribunal itself to remove factors from the register and to provide home owners with monetary compensation for the bad service that they have received.

I have set in place mechanisms for gathering data on the performance of factors, which, apart from anecdotal information from home owners across Scotland who have contacted me with their stories, is currently extremely scarce. It is important that there should be a record of the performance of factors, not least in order for ministers to carry out a proper review of factoring legislation, which is clearly overdue for reform.

I have listened to my constituents and to the many home owners who have been in touch with me to set out their issues with factoring in Scotland. I know that the law needs changed and that the regulation of factors needs to be tightened up to ensure that home owners in Scotland get a fairer deal.

Through amendment 415, my colleague Sarah Boyack highlights the fact that the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 is now almost 15 years old. It has become clear that there is still an imbalance of power between factors and the home owners on whose behalf they work. Citizens across Scotland have worked hard to bring factors to account, and they face odds that are stacked against them. One way of evening the odds is to make a slight change to the legislation to allow home owners to bring, as a group, rather than individually, complaints against factors that are suspected of breaches of the code of conduct. It is common knowledge that people become more powerful against corporate interests when they are enabled to work together, supporting one another. Amendment 415 allows groups of home owners to stand together and take collective action against the corporate interests that may well be balanced against them. It is meant to be part of a package of measures set out in the bill, updating the 2011 act and ensuring that factors’ interests are strictly regulated while home owners’ rights are protected where relationships go wrong.

I am aware of the length of time that it has taken for the Government to take action to bring forward changes to factoring legislation, following a petition that was lodged a few years ago. Ms Boyack acknowledges the Government’s assurance that action will be taken to strengthen the legislation, but she points out that those assurances have been heard repeatedly and we are still waiting for action. Ms Boyack fully intends to work in good faith with the Government to ensure that legally competent change can take place, but she asks colleagues to give due consideration to the length of time that we have already waited for change to happen.

My colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy lodged amendment 476 because it is important to be able to hold existing property factors to account. It is also vital that, when a factor has pulled out or been dismissed and a suitable alternative cannot be found, residents should not be left in limbo. It can be difficult to source an alternative property factor in Glasgow because fewer factoring companies operate in some areas, especially when older tenement buildings or smaller developments are involved.