Excessive Management Charges

suse142

Hi everyone,
Please excuse the lengthy question but as always it's complicated and I'd like some advice please. I've lived here 15 yrs and the management charges have increased year on year. Last month FirstPort increased my monthly charge from £39 to £46 p/m and gave us a painting quote of either 4K or 13K. I've already queried the painting costs but have been reluctant to do more as this sort of professional moaning takes a toll on me although I have done similar. So, what to do? There's a women here who's irate enough at the charges and who seems willing to go ALL THE WAY legally, to get a cheaper service via creating a new management company. She even offered me the job of manager. I'm aware we have legal rights via a 70% vote to change stuff in a "takeover". Is this easy enough to do? I saw a house for sale today with a phrase of "share of management company" listed. I assume that's what I'm thinking about? Next doors sale has just fell through and I'm worried it's because of the recent management charge increase, as I want to to leave soon too. Do I go the whole hog and canvass to do a takeover with the irate lady? And, I bought my freehold so I'm not sure exactly where that puts me. Why are we at those greedy basterds mercy all the time?

glottalstop

FirstPort are the former Peverel group of companies, by far the worst property managers in the country. Absolutely the best thing to do is get rid of them and start fresh.

Have a look at a campaign blog called About Peverel on spangelfish which explains the problems other people are dealing with. Also look at the info available on the government website LEASE at lease-advice.org, they explain the law and your options and you can send them an e-mail for free advice is you are stuck.

tomtontom

Yes, do everything you can to get away from Peverel. I have the misfortune to live in one of their managed properties and pay £800 a year for little more than buildings insurance - it's a self contained property so all the maintenance is paid for by me.

Run, run and keep running!

csgohan4

Is it freehold? This is concerning I have a freehold property but still pay maintainence via first port

Aloke

Hi - I’m the Chairman of the Residents Association in the small block of flats where I live (11 x2 Bed & 4 Studios).Our Managing Agents have morphed over the last decade from: Moss Kaye > Moss Kaye Pembertons > Pembertons > Solitaire > OM Peverel > Firstport. The service we have always received has been shoddy to say the least. Charges have always been on the high side (the average for a 2 bed property is about £1.8K pa, we are currently paying Firstport just under £3.8Kpa per flat).

On 18th May this year some of my residents and I recently raised our concerns with our 2 block managers as well as their superiors, the area manager SW and Regional Director JD regarding excessive charges, and demands for extra payments for items not covered in the terms of our lease. In a joint letter we noted over the past 5 years in general, and the previous six months in particular several concerns had come to light regarding Firstport’s management of our block including:

1) a lack of transparency for how our service charge is calculated and spent;
2) difficulty in getting maintenance and repairs done to a decent standard;
3) the escalation of the service charge annually without justification;
4) Firstport’s tendency every Q3 to issue a demand for an additional top-up payment attributed to unforeseen expenditure or shortfall- again without adequate justification;
5) the habitual inability of staff to provide documentation when requested;
6) repeated staff failure to terminate contracts when appropriate incurring excess charges;
7) repeated staff failure to address legitimate Leaseholder queries- in one case 17 documented repeated requests for clarification went unanswered;
8) Firstport’s default operating procedure when challenged on unbudgeted expenditure - to issue final notices including disproportionate penalty charges attached, as well threats of legal action.

Our letter concluded that given their lack of transparency, coupled with discomfort at their modus operandi, and the total lack of any positive engagement we were encountering, we regretfully concluded there was no alternative but to withhold further service charge payments until our points of concern were addressed. We expressed our wish that Firstport respond positively by addressing our concerns - and that our payments could resume promptly once these were addressed.

In response Firstport have:-
1.) contacted six residents (include myself) and threatened to pass our accounts passed to Debt Collectors;
2.) issued Solictor’s letters;
3.) and, in the case of one Leaseholder, obtained a judgement by default, by deliberately having a Court Summons’ to an incorrect address (an application to have this Judgement set aside is in progress).

This whole experience has proved to very stressful for us, to the extent we eventually felt compelled to engage the services of an independent Property Management Consultant. Doing so is the best thing we did. Since Reliance Property Management Specialists (RPMS) have been involved, their team, headed by Nirmal (Kal) Kalirai has worked ceaselessly to provide us with the re-assurance and support we need to manage our relationship with our dysfunctional Managing Agent. Kal has experience assisting Clients resolving issues arising from Firstports’ mismanagement. He and his team have:
1.) started a forensic review of our service charges to date uncovering unexplained hidden charges;
2.) taken on the role of co-ordinating the leaseholders response to Firstports threats of legal action;
3.) and, are hand-holding us through the application process for us, Leaseholders, to exercise ourr right to manage the block- thereby ending our association with Firstport on 02nd November this year!!

We are fully aware that the management structure varies and effecting change (of Agents) can be slow process, but we believe that with persistence, determination and tenacity in dealing with Firstport we will secure a better set up and deal for ourselves. The right-to manage is legally enshrined, and exists to prevent Leaseholder exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous Management Agents.

Thanks to the efforts of RPMS we are now looking forward to ending our relationship with Firstport and providing Leaseholders with quality service, value for money. We will also be forging a relationship with a new Managing Agent- one with integrity, and at whose core lies protecting the interests of Leaseholders. This matter will not end there. We are planning on pursuing Firstport for refunds on costs which we feel are excessive and damages for negligence.

StevoCally

Development I live in previously used Solitaire / OM Peverel.

I moved in a year or so after our RTM was formed to remove them and have recently become a director myself, I've started to gather historic accounts and found this company owe us a considerable amount of money (reserves / unspent service charges) which we've been unable to reclaim.

I'm in the process of trying to change our managing agent once more, I won't mention their name, but our charges have gone up to £1,100 a year and we get the bare minimum, projects drag on forever, small jobs being forever chased, no service accounts for over 3 years with repeated attempts to obtain them and pushing for works being unsuccessful.

Best advice I can give is form an RTM and speak to directors at other developments in your area, Companies House website will allow you to identify directors of RTM's, drop them letter and have a chat. We had a really good recommendation, spoke to their managing agent (local company) and am hopeful of appointing them in the next six months (trying to obtain paperwork from current agent).

exiled_red

What do your charges include and do you get a statement about what the money is being spent on?

I live in a large development (~200 flats) where the system is we the residents are liable for maintainance and repairs which are handled by the management company, we pay £70 a month to maintain a float which the management uses to cover the costs (communal area cleaning, garden maintainance, building insurance, communal electricity costs, lift costs and the cost of minor repairs etc), the management company takes about £200 a year per flat as a fee. The management company sends us an itemised statement with a breakdown of costs every quarter. This system works fairly well and the management company is fairly good to be fair to them.

We previously had another management company who were fairly bad and the residents got rid of them and got someone else in. If you are unhappy with how much you are paying or the service you are getting you should get the views of other residents and find out if another management company can do the same or a better job for lower cost.

glasgowdan

£70 a month is a lot though.

exiled_red

It is a bit on the high side but as I say it depends on whats covered in it, and the service you get, I know people who pay £30-40 a month in building insurance and electrical charges and no-one comes near and to be honest you can tell, our complex is maintained to a high standard and admittedly we pay a premium for that but to be honest I don't really have a problem with that.

The regular costs we pay are on building insurance ~£16 a month, ~£15 a month in management fees, cleaning of communal areas done once a week ~£8 a month, communal electrical costs ~£6 a month, window cleaning ~£5 a month, garden maintainance ~£3 a month, Telephone line rental for lift ~£1 a month.

There will then be some minor repairs, replacing light bulbs, light fittings, broken locks, door handles etc, repairs to roller garage door which would typically cost a couple of quid a months.

There are also infrequent items such as service contracts for lifts, water tanks, entry system and the interior walls and doors etc get painted every couple of years or so which typically takes up most of the rest, we also typically get any overpayent back at the end of the year which last year was about a months payment so last year probably averaged out at ~£65 a month.

EmpireSqSE1

Hello!


How long did it take to get rid of First Port?
Can I have the company who helped you on the journey?
We have 600 over units in the development and I wonder if it is even possible ;-(


Thank you

sheff6107

£46pm? That's peanuts! Most are £90 - £120