NCP

Fiona Stone
GB
•
2 reviews
2 Oct 2025
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
Disinterested, unhelpful and rude
Phoned up to ask for advice about an issue. The women that I talked to was disinterested, unhelpful and quite frankly rude. The information she provided was contrary to all the other information that I had researched about the issue. Given the amount of money that James Gibb are paid to factor the housing estate that I live in, they should be ashamed about the quality of the service that they provide.
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Fiona,
I think the complete lack of shame/remorse probably isn't the most negative of JGibb's attributes, to be honest. The fact that they are an insidious organization that deploys intimidatory/coercive tactics to squeeze every last cent out of their helpless clients probably counts as their most disgusting attribute. But because Scotland has (for years) been governed by a political party which has always hated homeowners, these crooked factors know they have carte blanche to do whatever the hell they wish, and that they will never be held to account. It's a deplorable state of affairs and it'll never change. Those are the sad facts.

You can rant all you like, Speirs Gumley, but fact remains that as at February 2025, you had a Trustpilot score of 1-star and none of 2, 3, 4, or 5-stars. You had the lowest score possible. But now, September 2025, your 5-star has risen to a whopping 47%. The positive comments are very clearly BOGUS and intended to boost your TrustScore. I bet you think people who come on Trustpilot to read read comments are irredeemable dopes, don't you? Plus, one does not need to be a client of a company to be able to spot fake comments designed to bolster that company's reputation. I don't know where you got that conclusion from. You and James Gibb are constituent companies of the same umbrella company, the insidious and criminalistic STRATHSPEY CAPITAL. I have nothing further to add.

Trustpilot
Hi NCP,

You reviewed Speirs Gumley, who believe your review actually belongs to another business.

Here’s the review we’re talking about:

1 star
One of the laughable features of James Gibb Residential Factors is their shameless attempts at cancelling out negative comments made by genuine review…
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No, Speirs Gumley, I did NOT review the wrong business. My comments started off with James Gibb Factors' long-standing practice of having their employees write fake reviews in order to boost their TrustScore, BUT I followed up those comments by pointing out that YOU (Speirs) are doing exactly the same by inserting bogus comments on this page, comments written by your own staff. (SPEIRS GUMLEY & JAMES GIBB are both owned by STRATHSPEY CAPITAL, so it doesn't take an Einstein to spot the same deceitful tactics employed by both companies.) Do you have difficulties with reading comprehension, Speirs Gumley?

One of the laughable features of James Gibb Residential Factors is their shameless attempts at cancelling out negative comments made by genuine reviewers on Trustpilot by having their (JGibb's) own employees post (fake) positive comments so that their TrustScore won't look so dismal. You will note that JGibb's current TrustScore is 1.9 ("Poor"), but it would've been worse had only genuine comments been included. 63% of reviewers gave the company 1-star and 29% gave it 5-star. But here's the kicker -- move over to Trustpilot's "Speirs Gumley" page. (Speirs Gumley and James Gibb are both owned by STRATHSPEY CAPITAL.) You will see that Speirs Gumley has a 4.4 ("Excellent") rating, with 46% of reviewers giving it 1-star and 47% giving it 5-stars. This is astonishing, because back in February 2025, when I last checked its score, Speirs had (if memory serves) ALL reviewers giving it 1-star. There was no one giving it 2, or 3, or 4, or 5-stars. Quite clearly, Speirs Gumley employees have gone out of their way to post fake reviews in order to spruce up their image on Trustpilot. It's far easier to influence the scoring system (by writing fake reviews) when you have just 57 reviews, in contrast with James Gibb's 750+ reviews. Speirs, it seems, have been working overtime to burnish its reputation and it's working, cause they've now got an "Excellent" rating. Don't you just love these con-artists?

One of the laughable features of James Gibb Residential Factors is their shameless attempts at cancelling out negative comments made by genuine reviewers on Trustpilot by having their (JGibb's) own employees post (fake) positive comments so that their TrustScore won't look so dismal. You will note that JGibb's current TrustScore is 1.9 ("Poor"), but it would've been worse had only genuine comments been included. 63% of reviewers gave the company 1-star and 29% gave it 5-star. But here's the kicker -- move over to Trustpilot's "Speirs Gumley" page. (Speirs Gumley and James Gibb are both owned by STRATHSPEY CAPITAL.) You will see that Speirs Gumley has a 4.4 ("Excellent") rating, with 46% of reviewers giving it 1-star and 47% giving it 5-stars. This is astonishing, because back in February 2025, when I last checked its score, Speirs had (if memory serves) ALL reviewers giving it 1-star. There was no one giving it 2, or 3, or 4, or 5-stars. Quite clearly, Speirs Gumley employees have gone out of their way to post fake reviews in order to spruce up their image on Trustpilot. It's far easier to influence the scoring system (by writing fake reviews) when you have just 57 reviews, in contrast with James Gibb's 750+ reviews. Speirs, it seems, have been working overtime to burnish its reputation and it's working, cause they've now got an "Excellent" rating. Don't you just love these con-artists?

F Reid, you say you've contacted "Shona Robison, Angela Constance, Paul McLennan - and the current first minister", and that none of them showed any interest in your problems. This isn't the first time that McLennan, the housing minister, showed lackadaisical behaviour towards someone complaining about a factor. He's done this before, and on that occasion, he was dismissive of the complainant and showed overt sympathy for the factor. This can only mean one thing.

Liz F, before I say anything of substance, let me make it clear that I am on YOUR side, and I fully appreciate what you have done, not just on this platform, but through your representations at the First-tier Tribunal, to bring to light the continual abuses perpetrated by James Gibb Factors.

The inescapable fact in this saga is that both your cases against JGibb were recently turned down by the First-tier Tribunal. The Tribunal found in favor of JGibb. That astonishes me. I, personally, thought you had a strong case. It was my belief, just as it was yours, that JGibb had committed "massive fraud" by gifting the out-of-hours emergency call-out contract to a company partially owned by the spouse of the erstwhile CEO of JGibb. But the Tribunal (in all their wisdom) disagreed with your view. The Tribunal came to this conclusion because JGibb, crucially, had not tried to conceal the fact that there existed a familial relationship between staff at the two companies. The fact that JGibb DID NOT subject that contract to open tendering in the first place was lost on the Tribunal. The Tribunal seems to think that a fraudster who openly admits that they have committed fraud should not be held to account because they were nice enough to make that admission at all. That is how shallow and imbecilic the Tribunal's thinking seems to be.

The fact remains that you did not gain the victory that you had sought, and Police Scotland had told you sometime ago that they would not, and could not, take action against JGibb until and unless the Tribunal felt something untoward had occurred. The Tribunal has now spoken and Police Scotland cannot do anything. It is hard, I know, but JGibb has won this round hands down. You can put on a brave face, you can intimate that Reid has, in effect, been banished to England and that Mayall has been "demoted" to a lesser role outside of JGibb, but the reality is they still "won". Neither of them are behind bars. And PropertyResponse24 gets to keep their £2 million ill-gotten gains. Whichever way one slices it, it's a victory for the crooks.

Martin, you ask in the last paragraph of your comments whether you should be paying £250 in charges which your site manager herself has acknowledged is incorrect. (If your flat's electricity bill jumped from £7.50 per month to £250 per quarter, that's an astonishing 1011% increase.) If you pay the bogus £250 invoice, you will only be emboldening and encouraging this criminal corporation to continue to defraud clients (not that they need much encouragement). You should approach the First-tier Tribunal, and you should also contact James Riding, a housing reporter (see contact details below), and show him the legal threats you have received from JGibb (or from their solicitors, BTO Solicitors.)

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Martin Reilly says:

Disputed items on an invoice
My last invoice from their Edinburgh branch was from 28/11/24 to 27/02/25. In it they included 4 months of communal electricity for September to December at a cost of £249.66 PER FLAT! Previous bills were around £7.50 per month per flat. They also included a charge for lift maintenance even though our block doesn't have a lift.

Date of experience: 08 April 2025

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James Riding

James Riding
12:22 PM (8 minutes ago)
to me

Hi Richard,

Thanks for getting in touch. I have received a tipoff that James Gibb has issued legal threats to residents for old energy bills, but I'm yet to see any proof.

Do you have any copies of the letters you might be able to share?

Very best wishes,

James

James Riding

Chief Reporter, Inside Housing
T: 07478 686756
LinkedIn | X | Bluesky


Date of experience: 02 March 2025

James Riding
12:22 PM (8 minutes ago)
to me

Hi Richard,

Thanks for getting in touch. I have received a tipoff that James Gibb has issued legal threats to residents for old energy bills, but I'm yet to see any proof.

Do you have any copies of the letters you might be able to share?

Very best wishes,

James

James Riding

Chief Reporter, Inside Housing
T: 07478 686756
LinkedIn | X | Bluesky

A recurring theme on this comments board is "Do not ever get involved with James Gibb because they are rude and useless." Two things right there. Homeowners/tenants do not CHOOSE to have this corrupt company as their factors. Many a time, they get saddled with this company. You may have had a perfectly decent factor previously, but if that factor chooses to get out of the factoring business or simply wants to cash in, then the company which it sells itself to may not be as decent and honorable as the factor that is bought up. In other words, the diabolical JGibb "inherits" the homeowners/tenants from the previous, decent factor. It's not as if the homeowners have a choice. Is that so difficult to understand? Secondly, this particular company isn't "useless" at all. Using the word "useless" suggests that no malice is involved and the people running the company are simply inefficient and not good at that their jobs. That is not the case here. What this company has been doing for years is a deliberate strategy to mislead and lie and con clients out of millions of pounds by issuing fake invoices for services that they've never provided nor has any intention of providing. (Not to mention awarding a contract to "former" Director David James King Reid's wife (Lorna Reid) for an out-of-hours emergency call-out service without putting it out to tender, as Scots law requires.) That is a whole world away from being "inept". One is a criminal act whereas the other is not. If a pilot crashes a plane through ineptitude, that is one thing. If a pilot crashes a plane deliberately (like that Germanwings flight circa 2015), that is a completely different scenario. JGibb is a criminal company. I have said this on this board repeatedly and have had my comments removed by Trustpilot at the behest of Nic Mayall, one of the "former" Directors of this company. Inverted commas because I believe he is still connected to this company and his "resignation" on 29th Oct 2024 was a false declaration to Companies House. I suspect he, David Reid, and a third Director, Douglas Weir, never resigned and submitted false information to Companies House. See my previous comment on why I think that is the case. So, when you folks say, "Don't ever get involved with this company", you simply DO NOT comprehend the true nature of what is happening.

To any of you who have received legal threats from James Gibb's solicitors as a result of your refusal to pay backdated electricity/energy bills which you suspect are bogus, may I suggest that you contact a gentleman called James Riding, who is the Chief Reporter of Inside Housing (part of Ocean Media Group Ltd.) He'd be interested to see the letters sent by the solicitors. He can be reached at James(DOT)Riding(AT)Oceanmedia(DOT)co(DOT)uk

I would also like to add that I strongly suspect that David James King Reid, Nic Mayall, and Douglas Weir, the three Directors of James Gibb who purportedly resigned from the company on 29th October 2024 (according to the Companies House website), have, in fact, NOT resigned and are still with the company. An email to a third party was copied to Reid in late November 2024 and that prompted an automatic reply from Reid's email address which said "I will be on annual leave until Monday 2nd December 2024 with limited access to email. In the event of emergency i.e. fire, flood, storm damage etc. you can contact us 24 hours per day on 0333 240 8325." If Reid "resigned" on 29th October, how come he'd be on "annual leave" until 2nd December? This whole thing is a hoax. Those three men never resigned. They submitted false information to Companies House and they are still running James Gibb -- under the radar. That is my guess.

The following review was removed by Trustpilot at the behest of James Gibb's resident bully boy Nic Mayall. (Mayall seems to have ceased replying to comments after he was outed as being the person who tried to intimidate posters into removing their negative comments.) I find it ironic that the bully boy had the audacity to criticize posters for "leaving anonymous reviews" when he himself never bothered to identify himself in his own replies. I'm interested to see what Trustpilot will do this time around.
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17 May 2024
Review removed

£2000 charge for a leaky ceiling, says Sandra
Sandra (a tenant) laments (May 14, 2024) that this corrupt establishment, James Gibb Residential Factor, will probably charge £2000 for a leaky ceiling which JGibb didn't even bother to send anyone to fix. She also says this criminal enterprise sent the tenant from whose apartment the leak emanates a "passive aggressive email". Another complainant on this forum characterised a JGibb employee as having a "serious attitude problem". I'm not sure why people seem taken aback by JGibb's overall attitude. This is a CRIMINAL establishment, a CORRUPT, INSIDIOUS enterprise. Having an attitude problem and sending passive aggressive emails are all part and parcel of how criminals behave when they know no checks and balances exist, when they know they can defraud people at will. The Scottish government KNOWS about this company's reputation. The previous Scottish First Minister (who resigned a couple of weeks ago) HAD BEEN INFORMED that this company has been conning homeowners for years. But the government REFUSED point blank to act. When you have a seriously dysfunctional gov't which doesn't give a TOSS about people they are supposed to serve, you have companies like JGibb doing whatever the hell they want to do, shafting homeowners, debiting money from clients without prior authorization, basically stealing from hapless homeowners. No one's going to look out for you, folks. You're on your own.

Date of experience: 01 May 2024
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Reply from James Gibb

4 Jul 2024
Dear NCP. We are requesting that this review be removed by Trust Pilot due to the false and defamatory remarks you are making about our business. Leaving anonymous reviews making outlandish and false accusations about our company, unsupported by any fact, is something that we will not tolerate.

"This is the email of the minister who…
This is the email of the minister who is responsible for factors and james gibb if we all bombard him with emails it will give weight to investigating James Gibb Paul dot McLennan dot msp at parliament dot scot

Date of experience: 08 December 2024"
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David, the fact that we should have to "bombard" a government minister before he does anything constructive speaks to his absolute apathy (for our plight) and uselessness. This guy (McLennan) shouldn't be in his job.

One has just learnt that the two corrupt "businessmen" who helmed this corrupt establishment have now (well, 10 days ago) resigned. One has also read "Private Landlord's" musings, of which the following is a snippet: "Reckon Mrs Reid has profited personally by at LEAST £1/4 million since 2020! And if 1st Tier Tribunal find in my favour, James Gibb may be on the hook for repayment of over one £ million to customers..." I fully realize people are entitled to frame their views whichever way they wish (this ain't North Korea or Russia, after all), but insinuating that PR24 is OFF the hook if they pay back £250K or £1M TOTALLY misses the point. Lorna Reid PROFITED from ill-gotten gains for AT LEAST four years. She was GIFTED a tremendous amount of money by her corrupt husband and she did not refuse that gift. There was NO tendering process done -- that UNWANTED contract (I hate to sound like a broken record) was gifted/presented to her on a silver platter. This was a criminal act in which she was a WILLING participant and a beneficiary. Lorna Reid is a theater nurse working for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and the head of NHSGGC (Prof. Angela Wallace) had been informed about the situation weeks ago. Paying back hundreds of thousands of pounds and/or resigning as directors of a company which has extorted millions of pounds from homeowners DO NOT ABSOLVE the criminals of criminal culpability. If I walked into a candy store and stole stuff and the owner caught me red-handed and I then said "Sorry, I won't do it again", would I be let go? Or would the police be called? This isn't stealing candy. This is a concerted, criminal endeavor which lasted YEARS and extracted MILLIONS of pounds from homeowners (I'm not just referring to PR24, I'm also referring to bogus backdated electricity/gas bills) who had no choice but to pay up because Humza Yousaf and now John Swinney couldn't gave a d@mn about homeowners and refused to intervene on their behalf. Yousaf or Swinney had the power to INITIATE A PUBLIC HEARING, the results of which could have been passed on to Police Scotland. These two men just couldn't be bothered. Why are posters on Trustpilot minimizing the severity of this crime? Neither the husband nor the wife are behind bars, and neither is the thug who has repeatedly bullied posters on Trustpilot with a view to silencing them. This is NOT a victory for you homeowning folks. The criminals are STILL at large, STILL being protected by the grotesque lawmakers. Wake up and SMELL the coffee.

"Local Guy
1 review
GB
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
7 hours ago
They will constantly add dubious charges to your invoice and fight you for *years* over each and every one, hoping you give up first. Do not stand for it.

Their modus operands is that they know 99% of the development will simply pay the invoices by direct debit, they then plan to drive the remaining 1%, who actually check their invoices, insane with the cunning strategy of simply ignoring them. Do not stand for it.

Their favourite trick is to hit you with £40 late payment fees it you refuse to pay disputed amounts after they have literally forgotten about the issue. They expressly forbidden from doing this but do it anyway. I used to wonder why this is not illegal. It turns out that it actually is illegal. Do not stand for it."

It's really rather easy to lecture the victims of continual fraud that they shouldn't "stand for it". It's a bit like saying to a rape victim, "You shouldn't have stood for it, you should've fought back." I realize that that is not your intention, but saying "don't stand for it" comes across as "you're not fighting back hard enough." I think some of us, especially the guy with the username Private Landlord, HAS fought back hard enough, but the problem resides with Scottish lawmakers. They introduced a factors law in 2011 which has less teeth than a newborn baby. Fighting back is kind of difficult when the law is so limp-wristed that it might as well not be there at all. The criminals who operate this criminal establishment are fully aware that in practical terms, they can operate above the law and that they will never have to face any criminal charges. The problem is not "not standing for it", the problem is far more nuanced and far more insidious.

Reply from James Gibb

4 hours ago

"Hi Mr Peacock, thank you for your further review. We consider your review important to us and would urge you to refer to our complaints procedure to escalate your enquiry to our Senior Management team. Trust Pilot nor any other social media platforms is not the platform to resolve your enquiry and we would urge you to collate all communications with our office to date and submit this in line with our complaints procedure as we wish to resolve matters with you as quickly as possible. For ease of reference, our complaints procedure can be downloaded by selecting the following link customer-complaints-guide.pdf (jamesgibb.co.uk)."

Nic Mayall, can you tell me WHY Trustpilot nor any other social media platform is not the platform to resolve one's enquiry? Could it be because you don't want the public to find out that the company which you run together with DJK Reid engages in fraudulent business practices and has been doing so for years? What right do you have to tell someone to not air their grievances on social media? This is a free country and those who have been conned by a diabolical, shameless establishment have every right to express their grievances on social media, to the First-tier Tribunal, to Police Scotland, to MSPs, to whomever they wish. It is not your place to dictate to victims of crime where they should express their grievances. Your sense of entitlement is astounding.

Re: "Reply from James Gibb"

Just wanted to let anyone reading the comments to know that the person from the corrupt James Gibb establishment who responds to some of the negative comments on this board with threats and intimidation (e.g., "Your review is in entirety inaccurate in full and we have passed these comments to Police Scotland, our solicitors and trust pilot to address") is none other than one of its Directors -- I shall refer to him as N.M. This man, N.M., seems to be the "enforcer" who does his level best to bully posters into removing their negative comments, failing which, he bullies Trustpilot into doing so. "Thuggish" is how I'd characterize this man's approach to criticism. One would be hard pressed to find someone who could sink any lower.

For the attention of all those who feel they have been defrauded by James Gibb Property Factors, and especially to the poster who goes by the name "Private Landlord" and who posted a comment entitled "Warning to Speirs Gumley Factored Properties", dated Aug 24, 2024, please read this. Writing stuff on Trustpilot on their James Gibb and Speirs Gumley boards is not going to get you anywhere. Police Scotland is now aware of the POSSIBLE/ALLEGED criminality involved and they would like to hear from anyone who feels they have been defrauded. You need to act now and email/phone Police Scotland/Poileas Alba at



Tel: 101



Email: contactus(AT)scotland(DOT)police(DOT)uk

Website: www(DOT)scotland(DOT)police(DOT)uk
Twitter: @policescotland
Facebook: facebook(DOT)com/policescotland

Ken Long writes (07 Sep 2024): "I repeat - FIND ANOTHER RESIDENTIAL FACTORS COMPANY, I implore you!"

That's easier said than done, Ken. FAR easier. When you sign legal papers inside your solicitor's office, papers that result in your name appearing on the Title Deed of the property you are about to own, you are also opting in to services that you may not have wanted in the first place. The City Council is technically responsible for the upkeep of your neighbourhood, but the Title Deed would almost certainly mention that in lieu of the City Council, private companies may take over that responsibility. It is this point that allows unscrupulous and dishonest property factors to force homeowners to pay up, even if they (factors) are not fulfilling their responsibilities. When a homeowner objects to being charged for services that have clearly not been rendered, the thuggish factor will remind you that you signed the Title and that if you do not pay, their solicitors will intervene. The Title Deed that allowed you to own your property is also the corrupt property factor's greatest weapon. And if you want to boot out your parasitic and thieving property factor, you have to have a minimum percentage of likeminded fellow homeowners for that to happen. You never asked to opt in, but it is nigh impossible to opt out, is what I'm alluding to. The entire system is set up in a way that is not only NOT impartial, but it actually favours corrupt property factors at the expense of homeowners.

The fact that this diabolical organization has been forcing homeowners who have been dutifully paying their own fees (which, in the first place, are inflated and not commensurate with the quality of service provided by this company) to shoulder unpaid fees of OTHER homeowners, is in itself a criminal offense. Homeowners complaining on this site have the right to characterize this God-forsaken company any way they please (as is their right), but to suggest that "lack of communication with clients" is this company's most outrageous shortcoming simply misses the point. This company is CHARGING feepaying homeowners for unpaid fees of other homeowners and that act crosses the criminal threshold. This isn't merely a company that is falling short in providing services clients are paying for. This is a company that is FORCING clients to pay for services that other homeowners aren't paying for. And when this company claims they've had to pay their lawyers to pursue the defaulters, and that these legal expenses have had to be passed on to clients across the board, where is the evidence for this? Has this company EVEN ONCE provided evidence (INVOICES) of their legal expenses incurred in the pursuit of defaulters? NO.