Firstport - change management company?

Far1974

Advise please. We are a small cul-de-sac of 20 houses (linden). Linden appointed first port as property management company 6 years ago but a lot of the residents have asked me to research whether we can set up our own management company and do it between us. Basically there is a very small patch of grass which first port charge us all a fortune each year to “maintain”

I really don’t know where to start.

Can we set up a residents property management company? 

There are about 25% housing association properties - do they pay to the property management company too?
what % of residents (freehold) do we need to get on board? 

Thanks so much for any advice 

MultiFuelBurner

What else needs looking after? Roads, pavement, street lights?

What do you pay per year?

It's not so easy what if you set this up and 10 homes refuse to pay their share? Do you have the time, patience and know how to do all of this?

km1500

this is the problem when you buy a fleecehold property

eddddy

Far1974 said:

Can we set up a residents property management company? 

There are about 25% housing association properties - do they pay to the property management company too?
what % of residents (freehold) do we need to get on board? 

As the houses are freehold, there's no law that allows property owners to take over the estate management.

I suspect that the only real options open to you might be:

• Read your deeds to see if the developer put in some clauses that allow property owners to take over estate management

• Depending on the set-up - their may be a way of directly or indirectly buying the rights to manage the estate...

... for example, if the set-up is something like this...

• Linden are the freeholders of the communal areas
• The deeds say that the freeholders are responsible for managing the communal areas
• Linden have appointed First Port as their agent to manage the communal areas

... you could ask Linden if they will sell you the freehold of the communal areas. Then you would probably become responsible for managing the communal areas.


If Linden are prepared to sell (at an acceptable price), any of the following would be possible...

• You could buy the freehold by yourself
• Some or all of the property owners could club together to buy the freehold
• Or somebody else could buy the freehold - e.g. A friend of yours, a family member etc