FirstPort – which has more than 400,000 leasehold homes under management and a portfolio of “fleecehold” private managed housing estates – has been suspended from its trade body the Property Institute for three months.
A statement issued to LKP today says:
“Following independent adjudication, ‘FirstPort Property Services Limited (FirstPort)’ has been suspended from TPI Company membership due to a breach of membership rules, for a period of three months, starting from 13 December 2024.”
The decision to suspend FirstPort, which may now have been eclipsed as the largest leasehold managing agent by Swedish group Odevo, was made before company representatives met Labour MPs last month to discuss repeated concerns expressed by their constituents.
It has been expressed on the Facebook group FirstPort Residents Action Group that the suspension concerns excessive delays over handover of leaseholder funds at sites where right to manage has taken place. This statement reflects a case that came to LKP recently, where it is claimed FirstPort demanded six months notice to change agents.
For much of FirstPort’s history, the company was Peverel but it changed its name in 2014 after the Cirrus scandal at retirement sites when its subsidiary ran a bid-rigging scam over electronic door entry systems.
The then Office of Fair Trading ran an investigation, but its effectiveness would require cheated pensioners to take legal action, which LKP warned would not happen.
Peverel made a £100,000 “good will” gesture to some sites that had been ripped off:
Even before the Cirrus scandal ruling in 2014 there were controversies.
In January 2010 when the Peverel managing director was required to write to all managing agents in the Association of Residential Managing Agents to “unreservedly apologise”.
Peverel was “severely admonished” and fined the maximum under the trade body’s rules of £2,500 after complaints from Martin Boyd, who went on to be an LKP trustee.
Peverel began life as a small Hampshire estate agency when it won the contract to manage McCarthy and Stone retirement sites.
It was taken over into direct McCarthy and Stone ownership in the 1990s, subsequently a management buyout and was once an asset of Vincent Tchenguiz, who contracted it to manage his portfolio of freeholds (which at one point amounted to 1% of all freeholds in the country).
It went into administration after the arrest – on incorrect evidence – of Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz by the Serious Fraud Office in February 2011
This saw the firm move to the first of its private equity owners and prompted the change of name from Peverel to FirstPort as part of a claimed focus on customer service .
FirstPort has since been owned by various private equity investors and now belongs to the French property management group Emeria.
FirstPort’s current managing director is much like the MD of Peverel in 2010: neither are actually directors of the companies they supposedly oversee.
Over the years, LKP and the MPs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group have met FirstPort’s bosses to raise concerns. In addition, LKP has invited FirstPort to address the APPG about raising standards.
The excuses usually follow a pattern of partial admission of past failings but now standards are improving and “customer service” – that is, service to leaseholders (who aren’t, of course, the employers of FirstPort) would improve.
Now they have been thrown out of the trade body which for years they primarily funded.
But it is a succession of groundhog days:
- LKP trustees are taking FirstPort to the Property Tribunal now as other trustees did in 2010.
- The organisation was being thrown out of sites by developers who had appointed them in 2010 and is still being moved out of sites by other developers now.
- Peverel found it difficult to provide the right accounting information in 2010 and FirstPort found it difficult to provide the right accounting information now.
- Their trade body took action against them in 2010 and it takes action against them now.
Perhaps LKP readers will not be surprised that:
FirstPort had used Tri Fire for their EWS1 building assessments and now has to report the problems that follow that association:
https://www.firstport.co.uk/news/ews1-certificates-following-tri-fire-suspension/
FirstPort has partnered with controversial retirement housing provider Platinum Skies, who have appeared on the LKP site
Leaseholders will doubtless remain unastonished that ex-ARMA/Property Institute chair Nigel Glen is the ethical social and governance director for the Emeria Group that owns FirstPort: https://emeria.eu/governance/
A role that he fulfills while also spokesperson for the Residential Freeehold Association:
Leaseholders in Hendon are being made to feel like cash cows by managing agents who hike service charges but provide poor service in return.
— David Pinto-Duschinsky MP (@DavidPintoD) January 9, 2025
FirstPort are the country’s largest management agent, and one of the worst offenders.
Today, I chaired a meeting between dozens of… pic.twitter.com/D9FDQc1Xap
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Cooee! Peverel becomes FirstPort and heading for ARMA-Q … But will it be welcome?
FirstPort Retirement is allowed into ARMA
Peverel / FirstPort paid ‘£40,000′ of residents’ contingency fund money to Mr Tchenguiz ‘by mistake’
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First Port are clearly about winning business and amassing units. Their management charges are incredibly low and set the expectation for what is to come. In short, its a business model that makes it ripe for acquisition as it has the largest unit count of any managing agent in the UK and gives our industry a poor reputation.
Their service charge budgets are ridiculous and do not represent the real cost of managing LH flats in large or even small blocks. The result of lazy and uninformed budgeting means that budget overspend is a certainty, meaning a year end deficit demand will be sent out. I have first hand experience transitioning sites that were formally managed by First Port and its been extremely painful. My colleagues and I have met with angry residents and talked them through the tragic situation and given updates on our progress on solving the historic issues, one bit at a time. I am genuinely upset and angry that residents and their buildings have been mismanaged and in some cases are non compliant with safety standards. I am glad that LH’s have a voice through this forum and have made a stand. As an industry we need to place ourselves in the shoes of the LH. We need to walk their steps, feel their frustration and make sure that we are providing a service that delivers on expectation. I am certain that First Port will take more than 3 months to sort their issues, and I fear that LH’s will still be asking the same question for some time to come.
Best of luck to you and well done!
Firstport low ball charges to win the contracts initially. But as Stephen Burns reports below their RTM is saving a massive 39% per annum. So, that`s not a symptom of low service charges, it`s exactly the opposite.
I have never heard of examples where MA`s have low SC`s. The majority are overcharging due to the fradulent behaviour of the landlord relationship/influence.
We achieved Right to Manage in March 2022 and have since reduced the overall service charge budget by 39.42% whilst maintaining the property inline with the terms of the lease.
The reserve or sinking fund (inherited) was about £70k, as of 22 March 2024 it stood at more than £86k.
Firstports strategy of “low balling” to win new contracts is widely reported, along with future service increases that are allegedly unjustified and have little or no supporting evidence.
I am aware of an almost identical residential apartment block who pay more than double the service charge that we do. They are not Right to Manage.
The sooner managing agents are regulated the better for all concerned. Self regulation has proven to have failed miserably in this industry sector in my opinion. Statutory regulation including the power to suspend or strike off those who consistently fail to meet the basic minimum standard is the way forward in my view.
Brilliant Stephen. Congratulations. A leading light on reform and fighting back.
Vinny,
Thank you for your kind words.
I recently replied to an email from Chris Webb Member of Parliament for Blackpool South in which I highlighted my thoughts about enacting legislation to make it easier for those in leasehold retirement blocks to democratically achieve RTM.
I anticipate a positive reply from Chris Webb MP.
First port took over Ower estate at vauxhall way in Dunstable our bills have gone but nothing gets repaired has gone down hill since they took as for money for 2 years ago I ended up paying £2500 last year they have cut back on cleaning the place and doing the garden’s but they have put our charges up 15percent they are a rip off merchant’s.
Good on The Property Institute who also support the introduction of regulation of managing agents that is so desperately needed for retirement housing.