Edinburgh pensioner at her 'wits' end' after factor refuses to fix broken lift out of action for five weeks
An Edinburgh pensioner has said she is at her 'wits’ end' after her property factor refused to fix a broken lift which has been out of action for five weeks.
Joyce Freeman, 75, who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, said she is struggling to climb the three flights of stairs to her flat at Joppa Station Place.
She said she has contacted her property factor Trinity Factoring Services Ltd on numerous occasions over the past five weeks, but they are refusing to fix the issue.
Trinity told her that although she has been paying her factor costs, not everybody in the block of flats has, and therefore they will not come out to repair the broken lift.
Joyce told the Evening News: “My lift has been out of action for five weeks and they have done nothing about it.
“I pay an upkeep to Trinity but they are refusing to fix the lift. I’m at my wits’ end. It’s very hard for me going down and up the stairs, I rely on that lift.
“I have spoken to the factors, who told me that some residents here have not paid, so they wont come out. I pay, so I don’t care about them not receiving the money from anybody else.
“They should repair what they are responsible for. But they are just ignoring me, there’s no hope whatsoever.”
Trinity Factors chief executive George McGuire said the delay to the lift being repaired was out of the company’s hands.
He said: “It’s simply not the case that we are ignoring Mrs Freeman and we have certainly not ‘done nothing’.
“We fully appreciate the difficulties faced by Mrs Freeman and understand how frustrating and inconvenient it is for her. We are committed to getting this lift repaired as soon as we can.
“The delay is not with us – we have the repair plan ready to be instructed. We hold clients’ funds strictly in accordance with legislation – separately from our own money.
“We maintain a separate bank account for each development and those owners responsible for paying for these repairs don’t have enough money in their development bank account to pay for them.
“We cannot instruct a contractor to carry out repairs knowing the owners don’t have enough money to pay for the work. Owners have been asked to pay their share of the repair costs into their development account. We await all owners doing this.
“The repairs will be immediately instructed when funds allow. We are providing regular updates to the owners.”