PROPOSED ACCREDITATION SCHEME FOR PROPERTY MANAGERS
MEETING OF STAKEHOLDERS' WORKING GROUP
HELD ON 25 FEBRUARY 2010 AT HIGHLANDER HOUSE,
58 WATERLOO STREET , GLASGOW
NOTE OF MEETING
1. APOLOGIES
A list of those who attended is attached at Annex A. Apologies had been received from Colin Baxter, Lionel Most, Lucile Rankin, Sarah Speirs, Simon Stockwell and Douglas White.
2. WELCOME
SW welcomed Sandra Jack and Mia Ayres-Donnelly to their first meeting of the working group. He also welcomed back Donald Reid, who was representing the Law Society in the absence of Lionel Most.
3. MEETING HELD ON 14 JANUARY 2010
A note of the meeting held on 14 January was approved.
Matters arising:
· PMAS Meetings
LMacD reported that she and other representatives of the Property Managers Association Scotland (PMAS) had accepted an invitation to meet Patricia Ferguson MSP on 24 February to discuss Ms Ferguson's proposed Member's Bill. At the meeting LMacD had taken the opportunity to emphasise that a great deal of work had already been carried out by the stakeholder group in developing a voluntary accreditation scheme complementary to the recommendations of the Office of Fair Trading's report of February 2009. She had also highlighted the potential for duplication between the accreditation scheme and some aspects of Ms Ferguson's proposals. Ms Ferguson had advised that she was required to submit her proposals in more detail during June 2010, and would welcome input from the working group in her preparations.
The PMAS representatives had also accepted an invitation to meet Nigel Don MSP earlier on the same day to discuss problems associated with the activities of some land maintenance companies and possible solutions for addressing these.
SW advised that the proposed Bill now had enough support from other MSPs to allow it to progress to the next stage of consideration by the Scottish Parliament.
There was a general feeling that the work of the stakeholders group, particularly in developing the standards, should be made public at the earliest opportunity. The forthcoming public consultation on the standards was considered an ideal opportunity to do so.
· Telephone mediation
SK reported on an approach to Lewis Shand Smith to obtain further details of the telephone mediation process available from the Surveyors Ombudsman Service, the types of issues where telephone mediation is generally used and whether the process is capped in terms of time. A note of the outcome of this enquiry will be circulated to members of the working group.
Further enquiries will be made about the Surveyors Ombudsman Service annual membership fees and case fees for 2010.
4. STANDARDS
a. Draft 9
The group considered Draft 9 of the core standards. It was agreed that the document should be updated to reflect discussions and re-circulated to the group for further comments during the following week.
b. Public consultation
It was agreed that development of the standards should continue to be the priority for the group at the present time with a view to having them ready for public consultation during April.
5. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
To be arranged subsequently.
Housing Markets & Supply
March 2010
ANNEX A
PROPOSED ACCREDITATION SCHEME FOR PROPERTY MANAGERS
STAKEHOLDERS' WORKING GROUP
25 FEBRUARY 2010
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
· Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland: Natalie Sutherland (Policy and Practice Officer)
· Consumer Focus Scotland: Jennifer Wallace (Principal Policy Advocate)
· Convention of Scottish Local Authorities: Douglas Munro (Accounts Manager, Housing Investment, Glasgow City Council)
· Edinburgh Stair Partnership: Sarah Burns (Homeowners & Private Rented Services Manager, City of Edinburgh Council)
· Glasgow Housing Association (Management) Ltd - Alison McDiarmid (Operations Director)
· The Law Society of Scotland: Donald Reid (Conveyancing Committee)
· Office of Fair Trading: Kyla Brand (OFT Representative in Scotland)
· Property Managers Association Scotland: Lorraine MacDonald (Vice-President)
· Scottish Federation of Housing Associations: Sheila Gilmore (Consultant for SFHA factoring Good Practice Guidance)
· Scottish Government: Sandra Jack (Family and Property Law); Stephen White and Shona Keenan (Housing Markets & Supply)
· Scottish Housing Regulator (Mia Ayres-Donnelly, Policy Co-ordinator)
APOLOGIES
Colin Baxter (Trading Standards)
Lionel Most (The Law Society of Scotland)
Lucile Rankin (Scottish Government, Property Advice Division)
Sarah Speirs (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Scotland)
Simon Stockwell (Scottish Government, Family and Property Law)
Douglas White (Consumer Focus Scotland)