Our Story
We founded Ethical Maintenance in 2007 to offer homeowners a straightforward & fair property factoring service.
How We Came About
If a straightforward & ethical property factoring service sounds like it should be the industry norm, sadly back then it was a completely different situation with too many rogue, pariah property factors offering dubious services.
That offered a gaping hole in the market for a fair and honest service to emerge and provided the ‘why’ behind our business model set-up.
Homeowners Wanted Change
It was around that time in the early 2000s that homeowners became so unhappy with bad service yet spiralling repair and administration costs, that they took their complaints to the media and to consumer rights groups.
The Office of Fair Trading and Consumer Rights Scotland were just two of the groups who investigated the sector. Coverage from the press and BBC highlighted the raw deal many homeowners were getting from their current property factor.
However, knowing how to change property factor isn’t always easy. We’ve spoken to many homeowners and residents’ associations who’ve told us that the biggest challenge to getting a better property manager isn’t the housebuilder who appointed their original factor, but the complexity of switching.
But things weren’t improving fast enough. So, in 2011 members of the Scottish Parliament took action and the government stepped in with new legislation and a Code of Conduct for property factors.
Find out why homeowners choose us
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Some services have improved, but not across the board. Too many homeowners were still battling with poor service and little choice, especially those locked into a property factor agreement.
In 2012 the Government consulted homeowners and were shocked by the results:
89%* of owners said they wanted to be in control of their factor, able to hire and fire them – but they couldn’t!
72%* of owners said they wanted maintenance and repairs to be done in a way that was transparent, and that was authorised by owners – but it wasn’t!
65%* of owners said they wanted their factor to have a fair and clear complaints process and a debt collection process that was fair to all – but these were not available!
*Data taken from an analysis of responses made by homeowners to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the Code of Conduct for Property Factors 2012
Why We're Different
- Ethical service treating you fairly
- Community Interest Company regulated to serve you
- Owners’ involvement in setting programmes & pricing
- Only pay for what the services cost us to provide.
Community First
- Work with you fairly and transparently
- Meet with you at least twice a year
- All key decisions agreed at community meetings
- If you want to know something, just ask us
Local Tradesmen
- Appointed after agreement by the owners
- Solid local track record
- Really care about the quality of work
- Qualified
Our property factoring service is based on fairness and choice
We offer an efficient service and fair pricing, along with a contract that gives you the freedom to move on and choose another factor should you decide to.
We never want you to feel stuck with Ethical Maintenance – we want to be your property factor of choice
A Community Interest Company
We set up Ethical Maintenance in the midst of this storm. Frustrated with industry standards, we chose to be a Community Interest Company (CIC) which means we’re additionally regulated to serve our communities: people like you.
We operate as a commercial company but our profits can only be used for the benefit of our customers.
In our start-up phase we contacted housebuilders to tell them about our company and ethos and were appointed as property factor for a number of new housing developments. We proved our worth and picked up more work.
As word spread, homeowners enquired about our services – many of the households we serve today are customers who chose to switch property factor to come to us. And stay, re-electing us every year.
“Much appreciate your help and advice getting us to act together to change factor properly. The best decision we’ve made as a building in ages.”
D Upton
