Atrocious Management Company first time buyer PLEASE HELP

eddddy

Nickfirsttimebuyer said:

@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 

And have the sellers contacted FirstPort?

Nickfirsttimebuyer

@AlexMac I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU AND IM SERIOUSLY THINKING ABOUT THIS NOW. SO STRESSED/ ANNOYED/ ANGRY AND DISAPPOINTED REALLY AS I WAS SEARCHING FOR A PLACE FOR TWO YEARS AND THIS IS NOW HAPPENING! 😢😢😢
Worst experience ever as a first time buyer 
Not sure if worth pushing even the management company tbh. I have seen all the reviews ofc. The thing is that ALL MANAGEMENT COMPANIES are the same and I though about this before putting an offer to this one. The previous flats I saw had even worse management COMPANIES and was told from the people were living in the building not to offer for the flats I was seeing for this reason!

Nickfirsttimebuyer

@eddddy yes they have but Firstport is saying they are not responsible for such queries. Surely someone is acting on behalf of the landlord and this should be the management company. Sounds like this is a chaos there....

Tiglet2

Nickfirsttimebuyer said:

I'm going through my first time purchase in London. Offer accepted in April and from then the solicitors are doing their job. Issue is that the management company, FIRSTPORT, do not reply to the sellers solicitor with regards to the outstanding inquiries from my solicitor. They say they are not responsible for such queries and they direct the sellers solicitor to the freeholder. They give no contact details of the freeholder though and the sellers solicitor cannot contact them. This situation is going for more than two months and we are stuck. I'm extremely stressed and even thinking of pulling out because this is like a red flag to me. 
1. What do you advise me to do?
2. What can I do to ensure these inquiries will be dealt with?
3. I have paid a deposit of 500£ to the solicitor and I own them 2.3K more. What do I need to pay if I pull out? 
Please help me as I'm extremely stressed 😥

Have you seen a copy of the management pack provided by FirstPort?  The seller would have had to pay for this but this is where you would find out who accepts the Certificate of Compliance.  If the management pack contains an LPE1 form, look at Section 1.6, Section 2 and Section 8 which contains information relating to documents/certificates required and who should provide them.

It might be possible that another Management Pack is needed from a different agent acting for the freeholder.  The sellers solicitor would have sent a copy of the title for the freehold to your solicitor, so the name of the freeholder would be known to the solicitor.  Maybe the seller hasn't paid for the additional Management Pack yet and this is why those questions are yet to be answered.

However, these enquiries are all part of normal leasehold conveyancing and is part of the due diligence done by your solicitor.  Not really much you can do.

BonaDea

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?

So hang on .... didn't you say elsewhere that the vendor's solicitor can't get in touch with the freeholder, because FIRSTPORT says the freeholder is responsible but won't provide the freeholder's contact details, but here you are saying that the landlord says the management company is responsible?  The landlord and freeholder are the same entity.  So has someone - the vendor's solicitor, or the vendor, or your solicitor, managed to make contact with the landlord/freeholder?  If so, then the vendor's solicitor needs to get back in touch with the freeholder/landlord to get them to sort out this confusion (if that's what it is) about delegated authority.  The freeholder employs FIRSTPORT; if they are paying FIRSTPORT to issue certificates of compliance on their behalf then the freeholder needs to tell FP to get on and do it.  But really it's up to the vendor and vendor's solicitor and EA to do all the pushing here of the intransigent freeholder and management company here.  In your place I'd be thinking quite seriously about cutting my losses and moving on.  Not all flats have these management companies.   

Titus_Wadd

I'd definitely be pushing the estate agent to do the chasing rather than your solicitor, who will charge you for doing so.  If you are having doubts ask your solicitor to halt (for now) their process (ie. not add further costs to your bill) until this is settled.  It's so tough paying for surveys and legal work only for the potential purchase/sale to fall through; it's the system that impacts all buyers and sellers, not just first timers.  That's no consolation and I'm sorry you're having this stress when you should be planning life in your new home. 

Having a melt-down to the estate agent could inspire them to chase up the answers required; so Monday morning let the agent know you are having serious misgivings about the purchase.  

Come back and let us know how things play out because I'm sure there will be future buyers in the same boat, and I hope you get it sorted.

MysteryMe

Cut your losses and look elsewhere.  Remember that clown show is going to be the same if you ever wanted to sell and potential buyers may not be as patient as you have been.  

lookbook

Time to move on. 

AlexMac

Nickfirsttimebuyer said:

@AlexMac I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU AND IM SERIOUSLY THINKING ABOUT THIS NOW. SO STRESSED/ ANNOYED/ ANGRY AND DISAPPOINTED REALLY AS I WAS SEARCHING FOR A PLACE FOR TWO YEARS….
Worst experience ever as a first time buyer 

I’m a great believer in Kharma (aka Fate or destiny..) in that every time I’ve been looking to buy, luck or chance has played a major part. 

So each one of our past half dozen or more buys have been happy surprises. 

So look for a more sunny option?

it’s out there 

Nickfirsttimebuyer

Hello,
That is the latest email update I had from Firstport:

To clarify, FirstPort are appointed as Managing Agents on behalf of the Management Company and Landlord and we deal with the day to day maintenance of the estate. Spenhill Residential No 1 Limited and Spenhill Residential No 2 Limited are the Landlord’s as per the title documents for Flat 32, Citius Court. Highams Green Management Company Limited are the named Management Company. I have checked Companies House (screenshots below) and Tesco Secretaries Limited are the company that both the Landlord and Management Company have appointed to act on behalf of them in a legal capacity therefore all enquiries relating to the title documents would need to be directed to them. Unfortunately we do not hold the contact details for the Landlord/Management Company or their representatives but we trust the sellers solicitor would have obtained these as part of their usual searches.

It looks like no one is able to find contact details of these 3 companies to reply to these outstanding inquires & I personally find this extremely strange. Does anyone here know any contact details of these companies?