Atrocious Management Company first time buyer PLEASE HELP

Nickfirsttimebuyer

Agreed however they are not assisting solicitors either. It's shambles really... My issue is that I have spent SO MUCH TIME looking for this flat & SO MUCH TIME AND MONEY with my solicitors and I cannot believe I may need to pull out from a situation due to lack of responsibility and responsiveness!

eddddy

michael1234 said:

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than the current comments including mine will come along soon but my first thought is why should either the Freeholder or the Management company spend any money (their time) assisting a purchaser of one of the leasehold flats ?

The freeholder / management company is assisting their leaseholder - the seller. (Because the leaseholder wants to sell their flat.)

The seller pays the freeholder / management company a chunk of money to do this.

It happens just about every time a leasehold property is sold. 

user1977

michael1234 said:

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than the current comments including mine will come along soon but my first thought is why should either the Freeholder or the Management company spend any money (their time) assisting a purchaser of one of the leasehold flats ?

I'm not sure how little you know, but it's a normal part of the due diligence in buying a property that the seller exhibits confirmation of management information from the freeholder/management co (generally in exchange for a healthy fee).

michael1234

eddddy said:

michael1234 said:

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than the current comments including mine will come along soon but my first thought is why should either the Freeholder or the Management company spend any money (their time) assisting a purchaser of one of the leasehold flats ?

The freeholder / management company is assisting their leaseholder - the seller. (Because the leaseholder wants to sell their flat.)

The seller pays the freeholder / management company a chunk of money to do this.

It happens just about every time a leasehold property is sold. 

But normally a service charge is paid to the mgmt company and ground rent to the freeholder. The latter could be peppercorn and the former includes provision for leaseholder sale? I'm not doubting you I'm just wondering where the incentives lie.

And of course to Nick I'm really sorry you're in this situation and hope you will get some good advice shortly.

Nickfirsttimebuyer

@edddy this is what I am saying here though. The management company does NOT assist the seller with all of these inquiries. They say they do not know and they are not responsible for anything!

AlexMac

I’ve bought four leasehold flats over the years and I’ve been lucky in that two were “shared Freehold “ and two had excellent Local Authority freeholders

i also walked away from one purchase after researching the freeholder and their agent. 

Reviews of FIRSTPORT are dreadful. I assume you’ve websearched ‘em?

a few hundred quid loss now, or even a grand or two are a tiny proportion of the total cost of purchase and service charges over the next few years; and if you go ahead, then sell on in a few years, your buyers will have just the same misgivings as you have now?

be wary. Maybe walk

eddddy

Nickfirsttimebuyer said:

My solicitors main concern is that they need something called a certificate of compliance from the landlord in order to register my ownership at Land Registry, and they currently have no details of how we are to obtain this. The management company say they are not responsible to provide this to the sellers solicitor and that they need to speak to the landlord and the landlord says the same that the management company is responsible for this! That is one of the queries.... I'm so stressed I may need to pull out due to the incompetence of these people in Firstport 

What do I do?

Are you chasing the seller?
 
Are you buying through an estate agent (who gets paid on completion)?

• If so, you should explain the problem to the Estate Agent (i.e. The management company and freeholder are passing the buck between each other).

• Then the Estate Agent should call the seller, and tell the seller to get on the phone to FirstPort, to try to get this sorted out. (And maybe get on the phone to the Freeholder, but that might be more difficult.)

Nickfirsttimebuyer

@user1977 yes correct however the seller solicitor is unable to get the answers from the management company because they are not responsible apparently. The management company is atrocious basically and they do not help the seller at all

eddddy

michael1234 said:

eddddy said:

michael1234 said:

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than the current comments including mine will come along soon but my first thought is why should either the Freeholder or the Management company spend any money (their time) assisting a purchaser of one of the leasehold flats ?

The freeholder / management company is assisting their leaseholder - the seller. (Because the leaseholder wants to sell their flat.)

The seller pays the freeholder / management company a chunk of money to do this.

It happens just about every time a leasehold property is sold. 

But normally a service charge is paid to the mgmt company and ground rent to the freeholder. The latter could be peppercorn and the former includes provision for leaseholder sale? I'm not doubting you I'm just wondering where the incentives lie.

And of course to Nick I'm really sorry you're in this situation and hope you will get some good advice shortly.

It's nothing to do with the ground rent or service charge.

The leaseholder pays the freeholder / management company a fee specifically for answering questions.

In simple terms, the freeholder / management company say "If you want us to answer these questions, you have to pay us £x first"

Nickfirsttimebuyer

@eddddy yes I have been speaking to the estate agency, my solicitor regularly. I have even spoken to the sellers solicitor trying to escalate the situation