As part of the selling process, your solicitor should inform us, in writing, of an impending change in ownership of your property, as much notice as possible is helpful and at least 10 working days before the sale.
The Property Standardisation Group, in collaboration with the Law Society of Scotland, have produced the standardised ‘Letter to Factor’, an 11-point request for information, submitted to a Factor by the seller’s solicitor, when a property is being sold. This letter includes requests for information on the following topics:
- Annual factoring charges.
- Estimates charges to the sale date
- Float refundable/payable
- Common Insurance policy, including details of same
- Details of known repairs, defects or maintenance issues affecting the property.
- Cyclical Maintenance Fund obligations
- Outstanding debt due by the seller
- The existence of any Notice of Potential Liability (NOPL) registered against the property.
- A request for factoring charges to be apportioned.
The letter will also confirm:
- The agreed Date of Entry
- The Purchasers Name
- The Purchasers Solicitor
- Solicitor or homeowner address for the final accounting.
When will i receive my final account and reimbursement of my float payment?
We account to our clients on a quarterly basis, in arrears, during the months of February, May, August and November for charges in respect of the maintenance of common property.
During the quarter immediately following your sale date, we will undertake an apportionment of common charges, and your invoice will include:
- All third-party invoices for repairs completed prior to the sale date, where invoices have been received from the contractor.
- An apportionment of all insurance premiums and management fees, up to your sale date.
- Monthly charges, including cleaning and gardening, where invoices have been received by the supplier, will be split between the seller and purchaser, using a daily rate calculation.
- Other quarterly invoicing, such as lift maintenance contracts or electricity charges, where invoices have been received by the supplier, will be split between the seller and purchaser, using a daily rate calculation.
If there has been a delay in receiving invoices from third party contractors for work carried out during your period of ownership, your final common charges invoice may not be issued until such time as all invoicing has been submitted to our office. For example, electricity suppliers submit invoices on a quarterly basis in arrears, and as such, the apportionment of these charges cannot be calculated until received.
In general, to ensure all invoices for works/services carried out during your period of ownership are accounted for, it’s likely that your final common charge invoice will be issued during the second subsequent quarter following your sale date.
Any float paid to us when purchasing your property will be reimbursed to you, through the final accounting process. No float payments will be refunded until all final accounting is complete. Where your account is in credit following the issue of all final common charge invoicing, the balance will be reimbursed to you by way of cheque.
I’ve paid money into a sinking fund. will this be refunded?
I have paid monies in advance towards a repair project. will this be refunded?
Where you have submitted funding to our office and the work is unlikely to progress in advance of your sale date, any agreement as to the refund or retention of this money should be made between the selling and purchasing party. Upon confirmation to our office, we will either refund the money to you, or retain same for use by the purchaser when the repair progresses.
Should i cancel my direct debit or standing order?
The responsibility to cancel your Direct Debit or Standing Order remains with you, however before doing so, we would ask that you ensure any outstanding balances are paid in full, and arrangements have been made for the settlement of any final accounting to be issued to you.
why is there an administration fee when i sell my property?
To reflect the additional administration involved in dealing with the sales process, including the apportionment of common charges between the seller and purchaser, we charge an additional administration fee to the selling party.
Our Terms of Service & Delivery Standards does not allow for the provision of this service within our Core Services, for which you are charged a set annual management fee.
This charge is notified to your solicitor upon receipt of their sale notification letter and will appear on your final invoicing.
Where we receive late notification of a sale transaction, within 10 working days of the sale date, due to the additional administrative resource required, a higher fee is applied.
what is a notice of potential liability (nopl) and how can this be removed from my title?
The effect of such a notice is that incoming owners of a property may be liable for outstanding costs relating to certain maintenance or work. The Notice is in effect over the property for three years.
If the debt to which the NOPL relates has been met before the expiry of the three-year period, it is possible for the Notice to be discharged. The appropriate Notice of Discharge form should be submitted to our office, by your Solicitor, for our consideration. Where we have provided our agreement (signature) to any Notice of Discharge, it remains your responsibility to submit the appropriate paperwork to the Registers of Scotland.
