Aspect Residential
A record of correspondence with the property management company in Edinburgh.
Earlier this year (2011) I received a bill from Aspect Residential, that included a substantial fee for a solicitor's letter.
I had received no such letter, and so got in touch with the newly renamed company (previously McBride Property Factors) in order to clarify what I assumed was a simple error.
After several unsuccessful and frustrating phone calls it became apparent that it would be difficult getting someone to take ownership of the issue. I was informed of various issues with accounts, and problems with fees that had occured whilst the company was changing its name, but could not get a firm answer, despite being told it was an error a number of times.
Ultimately, I ended up having to move the conversation to email, so I could keep a record of Aspect's responses, and at least have a record of the way they handled a simple customer service issue of an incorrect bill.
The correspondence to date is below, and will be updated as it goes on. At the current time (27/5/11) it is 1 month from the initial email conversation.
(As mentioned below, the first email from aspect was simply a copy and paste of a physical letter I had recieved earlier that week, full of factual and grammatical errors.)
Correspondence from Aspect Residential follows:
27th April 2011
Dear Mr P,
Further to recent correspondence regarding your outstanding balance of £366.30 and to your telephone call regarding the fees charged by Morisons, Solicitors.
Having checked your account since you moved into the property in January 2008 it would appear that charges since then until June 2010 remained unpaid until August 2010.
Your account was referred to Morisons in August 2009 but dispite this correspondence no communication was received from yourself.
Having been to a debt collector at that time you would have been made aware that factors fees for your property were due on a regular basis and that there would be legal fees associated with non or late payment.
We are not in a position to refund this fee as this would incur a charge to each of the individual property owners at Seaviewgate.
I trust the above clarifies matters for you at this time.
Kind regards,
Gavin
Gavin Benzie
Accounts Department
Aspect Residential Property Management Ltd
10a Rutland Square
Edinburgh
EH1 2AS
Direct Dial: 0131 221 2216
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
27th April 2011
Gavin,
This does not correspond to my records at all.
It appears to be a pasted copy (including the misspelling of 'despite') that was sent to me (or rather to the non-existant Mrs. P) last week.
As such, I would ask you to provide the following:
a. Receipt of delivery regarding the legal document in question.
b. Clarification of the term "Having been to a debt collector at that time you would have been made aware that factors fees for your property were due on a regular basis and that there would be legal fees associated with non or late payment." In particular: "having been to a debt collector".
I can assure you that I have not, at any time received a solicitors letter regarding these fees, and have faith that whichever system you have in place to record delivery of such important communications will correspond with this.
Kind regards,
P
4th May 2011
Gavin,
It has now been 1 week since my last email. Can you please respond regarding the points raised below.
If I don't hear back from you within another week, I'll assume that, as expected, you are unable to produce any reliable receipt regarding the delivery of the letter in question and that the matter is closed and you will remove the erroneous figure from my account.
Kind regards,
p
5th May 2011
Dear P
Further to your email below I would advise that I have been in touch with Morrison regarding letters sent to you and am waiting on a response from them.
Regards
Jane Robertson
Accounts
5th May 2011
Good afternoon Mr P
Apologies for the misspelling in previous correspondence.
We have asked the solicitors dealing with this case for the copies / any proof of postage they may have of any letters
sent to you and any actions raised. We are awaiting their response. Please bear in mind we have had 3 public holidays since
the 26th April. However we will chase them up.
It is quite normal and acceptable to write to a married woman under her husband’s initial hence the Mrs P.
As soon as we have a response from the solicitors we will get back to you.
Kind regards
Angela Henderson
5th May 2011
Thanks Angela,
Can you also please respond on issue b. from the original email:
"b. Clarification of the term "Having been to a debt collector at that time you would have been made aware that factors fees for your property were due on a regular basis and that there would be legal fees associated with non or late payment." In particular: "having been to a debt collector"."
Thanks in anticipation,
p
5th May 2011
Hi p
The debt collector used at that time was actually the Solicitor’s (Morisons) debt collection department and there would normally be a process of letters sent out before court action. We will check all this out for you as since the company changed hands at the end of last year the staff who dealt with this are no longer employed here. We will get back to you as soon as we get the information from Morisons. Kind regards Angela PS Apologies I didn’t realise Jane had already responded to you. Angela Henderson General Manager
27 May 2011
Dear Angela,
It has now been 1 month since my original email to Gavin.
Can you please provide me with an update on proof of delivery of the letter discussed below.
Kind regards, p
27 May 2011
Dear Mr P Thank you for your email of today regarding the fees on your account from Morison’s and advise that despite chasing them on several occasions we are still waiting on them forwarding us copies of any correspondence they sent to yourself. Regards Jane Robertson Accounts
27 May 2011
Hi Jane,
I think 1 month is a reasonable enough time for us to wait for proof of delivery on a letter we didn't receive.
Please remove the erroneous charge from our account and forward me over details of any outstanding balance we may have.
Thanks for your time, p