Experiences and Perceptions of Property Managing Agents

The Office of Fair Trading commissioned Ipsos Scotland to undertake a survey of owner-occupiers living in flats as part of a market study of Scottish property managing agents. The over-arching aim of the study was to identify how well the market for maintaining and repairing common areas of multiple occupancy buildings in Scotland was working. Among the key issues addressed in the survey were: the type of arrangement in place for the maintenance of common areas - i.e. whether services were provided by a property managing agent/factor, housing association, council or arranged by owners and residents themselves (`self managed'); satisfaction with current arrangements and with specific services provided; complaints handling; awareness of steps that need to be taken to switch property managing agent; and attitudes towards switching. Download the full research report from the OFT website.

Technical details Ipsos interviewed a sample of 998 owner-occupiers across Scotland. All interviews were conducted by telephone between 22 September160and 5 October 2008. The data was weighted by Local Authority area, using 2007 Scottish Household data.