Draft revised code of conduct for registered property factors: consultation analysis

This report presents an analysis of responses to the consultation on a draft revised code of conduct for registered property factors.


Introduction

Background

This report presents an analysis of responses to a consultation on a draft revised Code of Conduct for registered property factors.

Section 14 of the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) requires that Scottish Ministers must, from ‘time to time’, prepare and publish a Code of Conduct (the Code) which sets minimum standards of practice for registered property factors in their business with homeowners. Following an informal review of the original Code, a draft revised Code has been prepared and is the subject of this consultation exercise. 

The consultation opened on 6 October 2017 and closed on 15 January 2018. The consultation paper is available at https://consult.gov.scot/housing-regeneration-and-welfare/code-of-conduct-for-registered-property-factors/ and published responses can be viewed at https://consult.gov.scot/housing-regeneration-and-welfare/code-of-conduct-for-registered-property-factors/consultation/published_select_respondent.

Profile of respondents

In total, 102 responses were available for analysis, of which 73 were from groups or organisations and 29 from individual members of the public. The majority of responses were received through the Scottish Government’s Citizen Space consultation hub. 

Respondents were asked to identify whether they were responding as an individual or on behalf of a group or organisation. Organisational respondents were then allocated to one of four categories by the analysis team. A breakdown of the number of responses received by respondent type is set out in Table 1 below and a full list of organisational respondents can be found in Annex 1.

Table 1: Respondents by type

Type of respondent Number
Organisations:  
Community or Resident’s Group 2
Property Factor 62
Representative or Professional Body 8
Other 1
Organisations 73
Individuals 29
All respondents 102

The majority of responses (62 out of the 102 received) were group responses from organisations that act as a property factor. Of these, 33 respondents were Registered Social landlords (RSLs) including subsidiaries, 21 were private businesses and eight were local authorities. The ‘Other’ group response was from a local authority that does not act as a property factor. 

Individual respondents included individuals who are involved in delivering property factoring services and those who identified themselves as being in receipt of property factoring services. 

As with any public consultation exercise, it should be noted that those responding generally have a particular interest in the subject area. However, the views they express cannot necessarily be seen as representative of wider public opinion.

Analysis and reporting

The remainder of this report presents a question-by-question analysis of the comments made. A small number of respondents did not make their submission on the consultation questionnaire, but instead submitted their comments in a statement-style format. This content was analysed qualitatively under the most directly relevant consultation question.

Within the main report, the answers at the closed questions are presented in chart form. The full results by respondent type are presented in Annex 2.

A number of the consultation questions asked respondents to make reference to the relevant requirement(s) of the original Code or the draft revised Code where applicable. Where respondents did so, this is reflected within the analysis but the full text of the original or draft revised Code has not been presented. Readers may benefit from having a copy of the consultation paper for reference.

Throughout the consultation respondents made suggestions for redrafting of the proposed Code. Many of these were of detailed or technical nature and are beyond the scope of this summary report but all responses are available in full to the team at the Scottish Government for its consideration.

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