I have have been with this unethical company for a few years now. I have come to realise a few things about them, for starters they absolutely do not have their clients at heart and if in any way possible will try and unfortunately succeed in extorting their "clients" as we the bill payers have no choice but to abide by their way of playing since the complaints procedure is non existent on their behalf nor do they care, The work carried out is shoddy and can take up to and over a year for problems to be fixed if they are even fixed. From the moment I moved into my property I knew this so called factoring company was no good as the front door of the apartment block was getting vandalised on a near monthly basis which lasted approx 6/7 month, The door would get smashed and then come the H&P to "save the day" and of course the residents would have to pay for the fix each time, not only could they have done something to prevent this from happening, but no they do not prevent which would save themselves time and the residents money which would be the honest thing to do, they are more than happy to overcharge for a door to be fix, then there are the fact that the door handle smashes into the wall when opening which leaves a dent which again will need to be fixed and charged at a rate that I am starting to think the numbers are just made up between them and their maintenance guys, again could easily be prevented by adding a doorstop costing a fraction of the price of plastering the wall over and over again, but no this would be too beneficial for the clients saving them money is not the priority for them. Of course I find it difficult to part with what little money I make as it is when they cannot do their jobs competently and charge excessively for things of which I do not even understand sometimes, then come the letters the "admin" letters which are charged at x amount,the court letters which are charged at £200+ (different for different people from what I can see) then come the letter stating that the property will be blacklisted another £200+ baring in mind they charge each time a letter is sent out, that is nearly more than my actual mortgage! yet they seem to get away with this time and time again - if 99% of the people are calling you a crook then more than likely you ARE a crook, there has been evidence of this company bribing people to leave them 5 star reviews. When speaking to people in the relevant department mainly dealing with Heather, she was dismissive short and unwilling to help in anyway - for instance I spoke to her who advised me that if I get in touch within one month we can sort out a plan which i agreed to only to receive another letter 2 weeks after said call which stated that court proceedings will commence unless a payment plan is set up, I am starting to think these court letters are somewhat of a extra income for these guys now. Another strange turn is when I asked Heather to email me in writing about the plan in which we spoke about she was adamant that she did not need to, that a "note" would be left on the system - My response was "I have little faith in your company and find your company to be incompetent so could you please put it in writing?" To which she was adamant that she did not need to do. The Irony of this situation is that a plan was set in motion for the whole amount to be paid off within three weeks of receiving this letter so my question is what did they want me to do set up a DD for the full amount of which we spoke about paying off anyway? I just don't understand their logic, maybe she is just on some sort of power trip and maybe has had such an unfulfilling life that she has to get her kicks by messing around with other peoples lives? when the maintenance issues were brought to her attention her response was "This is not my problem, nor is it my department" this is the level of customer service you should come to expect. I am currently suffering from covid and do not have the energy or the income for them to be threatening me so I have grudgingly paid for the sake of my health. read more

One should appreciate that factoring is not an easy job. Getting money out of people who have got other priorities is difficult and if a factor instructs work they are liable to pay the contractor. Having said that few firms make a worse job of it than H&P. My advice is try your local housing association. They won't steer work to the guys they play golf with read more

Well, apart from sending us a letter addressed to another customer, pertaining to their debt giving us the details - they are Bullying us and charging whatever they like and refusing to provide proof of what we are paying for. My husband owns a flat we have been unable to sell since we moved in together four years ago. We have struggled to keep it, being threatened with repossession many times as we can't afford the mortgage but have let it out a few times simply to keep the payments up. All the while, we have struggled with the ever increasing factor bills. I am a mother of five and we have been effectively trying to upkeep two properties. Hacking and Paterson have rushed us into court even when we have written to them explaining our financial difficulties and making our best payment offers - this has resulted in massive charges being added on and it's an ever-spiralling debt situation. We have asked them to clarify why the bills are going up and even, more recently made a request to see all the records of bills to the property etc under the data protection act, which they basically ignored apart from writing to us to say, "here is all the information we hold on your account - property details - and our name - A single line response, which frankly is just derogatory. They didn't respond at all to my request for their complaints procedure. I've made another one in writing and got a smug reply today as thus: "To the matter of the Data Protection Act, we have provided you with all the information we are required to give under the act. We think your query relates to The Freedom of Information Act. As we are a non-public body, this doesn't apply." So basically, they can charge anything they want for services and repairs to the property - make up a figure for the factor bills and pay something else in fact - and they are under NO obligation to show us any of the bills to corroborate the charges! This is ludicrous! And worse than this, they quite clearly feel secure in the knowledge that they can pretty much do (and charge) what they like. Make up your own mind on using these complete leeches read more

This is the worst company, of any description, I have ever dealt with. The level of service which they provide, when compared to the fees which they charge is nothing short of absolute scandal. Basic competence of their staff when dealing with even the most basic property management issues is below zero %. It sticks in my throat even giving them one star. If you have any choice in choosing your property agent/factor - choose someone else. read more

Do not employ these incompetent clowns otherwise you will be ripped off and never get rid of them. They truly deserve to be called Factor which is a dirty word in Scottish property management. Indeed they know all the dirty tricks since 1922 and will readily use that against you if they don't get their fees. Expect to be charged recurring fines until you are taken to court by them for their belligerence and greed. They do not do site visits so will not inspect your premises instead provide a purely admin role. The contractors they nominate are "preferred" so are in each others pockets. They take a 25% commision on any block buildings insurance at the expense of owners. Do not expect to get your deposit back as some excuse will be given for its confiscation. In the years we had them they caused more harm by their shoddy contractors botching jobs. Lastly when you finally sack them they will go kicking and screaming: it took us six months to get free of them! You have been warned.......... read more

Received Invoice early February for twice amount expected, after enquiring had to provide proof of 2011 payment of £37.86. Provided copy of my bank Credit Card Statement, after looking into it was found my payment had been credited to another address with same name as myself. This was going to be sorted out and I duly received a "corrected" invoice which did not refund my £37.86 in full but had £1.00 deducted for some unknown reason. Contacted office this morning and was told to just pay what I thought was correct amount and they would look into it which I refused as some time in future they could come back and say I still owe this amount. They have now agreed to look again at it, why should I be penalised for their mistakes costing telephone charges etc read more

This crew appeared out of the dark a year after we purchased our new house and nominated themselves as factors-for a semi detached house!-they take care of "common charges" which means they get a postage stamp sized square of grass cut now and again-when I told them to get lost I wasn't paying for property I don't own they just ignored me and kept sending bills-again and again-I wrote to them a total of 11 times and just ignored me-now they have sent me a bill for £600!-saying it's for court charges and when I refused they sent sheriff officers to attach my furniture!-how the hell do I get rid of these parasites?-I never signed any agreement for them to provide me with any "factoring" on my own property and am not interested in the upkeep of a dog toilet!. read more

I came home one day just last week to find a letter from Hacking & Paterson resting on my hallway floor. The quarterly bill was't due for another month, so this letter was obviously going to have to be about something else. The letter explained that the factor had received a "recent" report from an owner about the rear door to the premises being in a poor state of repair. The folks at H & P had taken it upon themselves to source the services required to have the door replaced and as such required the sum of around £76 from each occupant by the end of the following week (pitifully short notice given that this was the first time this had been mentioned by the factor). I had long since realised that H & P would never do anything as helpful as provide a stamped & addressed envelope in which to return any payments, but this time around it was even clearly too much for them to even offer the courtesy of the usual addressed envelope. Also, despite requesting that we send our "apportioned share" by the date stated, there is no hint anywhere in the correspondence of what form the payment should talk and indeed who the funds should be made payable to. Also, thinking of calling H & P's office during your lunch break to obtain the required information? You can forget that, given that they shut down completely for lunch between the time of 1245 and 1400. One also has to wonder about their definition of recent. Given that Hacking & Paterson actually received the estimate of how much it would cost to repair the door well over a month before issuing the letter, you have to wonder also when they received the report of the poor state of repair of the door. Requests for substantial sums of money appearing out of the blue, lack of common courtesy and basic information in correspondence and seeming lack of desire to have any staff available to field any queries one may have. Just a few examples of the general lack of competence exhibited by Hacking & Paterson. Lucky for them I didn't have the choice as to whether I could have them as my factor as given that choice, I wouldn't even give them so much as the time of day. read more