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Welcome to the home of The Dovecote Residents’ Association (TDRA). We represent the residents of 140+ new-build homes in the heart of south Oxfordshire.

Here, you can find everything you need to know about the development. If you want a quick intro into our website, just read our intro post.

If there’s something you think should be on this site and you can’t find it, please get in touch via our Contact form.

New Resident?

If you have just moved in to The Dovecote, why not check out our Intro for New Residents?

Latest Update

We have moved into a new phase of the handover process. To reflect that shift in focus, we have a section of this site about the residents Taking Control. This articulates Our Vision, Our Plan, Our Action, Our Vote, Our Option, Our Timeline, Our New Managing Agent and Our Snagging List for transitioning from a Bloor-managed development to a residents-controlled Management Company.

We also now have Our FAQs to try and answer residents’ common questions.

Recent Announcements

Here you will find a list of our recent announcements. Hopefully you can find something you are interested in!.

Bloor, FirstPort and the Management Company – Who are They?

By Nige on March 11, 2023 at 5:16 pm
Type: Post Category: Handover
Tags: Announcements | Bloor Homes | FirstPort | Management Company

We have written a lot about these three mythical beings, but do you understand who they are and what the relationship is between them? And why they are significant?

Service Charges – Claiming Back from Bloor Homes

By Nige on March 10, 2023 at 6:28 am
Type: Post Category: Service Charges
Tags: Announcements | Bloor Homes

Residents have been receiving service charges from Chamonix and/or FirstPort for a number of years now, but do residents realise that they can claim these costs back from Bloor Homes?

Service Charges – What You Need to Know

By Nige on March 6, 2023 at 6:45 am
Type: Post Category: Service Charges
Tags: Announcements | FirstPort

Since 2021, the residents of The Dovecote have been receiving notifications of annual service charges and an associated account statement. We thought it would be helpful to explain what these service charges relate to and whether you need to pay them.

Two Service Charges Received from FirstPort

By Nige on February 28, 2023 at 12:10 pm
Type: News Category: Service Charges
Tags: Announcements | FirstPort

As one or two residents have already posted on this subject, but we have just received two service charge statements in the post: As one resident has already noted, we were already made aware of the charge for £8.15 sometime last year, so that’s not something new.Interestingly, we have not had a service charge for […]

Update on Recovery of FirstPort Expenses

By Nige on February 28, 2023 at 11:25 am
Type: News Category: Service Charges
Tags: Announcements | Bloor Homes | FirstPort

We have had no response from Bloor recently in respect to the recovery of costs we have incurred from FirstPort. We assume others are in the same boat. We would expect we will soon receive the annual charge from FirstPort – it’s normally early Feb (if we recall correctly), since the “year” runs from start […]

The Technical Foundation for Our Website

By Nige on February 27, 2023 at 2:11 pm
Type: Post Category: Handover
Tags: Announcements | Website

Some residents may be interested to know more about how our website has been developed and how it will be run moving forward. This blog post is for you! Anyone not interested, can move along to the next blog post or a different page now!

Discussions with FirstPort and Bloor Homes

By Nige on February 14, 2023 at 11:33 am
Type: News Category: Handover
Tags: Announcements | Bloor Homes | FirstPort

For awareness, we have exchanged emails with the new Property Manager at FirstPort. They have been on site; we can only assume at the invitation of Bloor Homes. We have recommended they spend no more time working on the development on the basis that it will simply lead to expenses that FirstPort will pass on […]

Content of Email from FirstPort

By Nige on February 10, 2023 at 11:30 am
Type: News Category: Estate Management
Tags: Announcements | FirstPort

As promised, this is the content of the email from FirstPort: CIRCULAR – CHANGE OF PROPERTY MANAGER As Managing Agents for your development, we am writing to you to introduce myself as the new Property Manager for the scheme. The reason for the Change of Property Manager, is to ensure that as a business we […]

Email from FirstPort

By Nige on February 10, 2023 at 11:29 am
Type: News Category: Estate Management
Tags: Announcements | FirstPort

We assume everyone has received an email from FirstPort advising of a change in property manager. We will paste the content in a separate post for completeness. Ignore the email – it adds no value to The Dovecote and is completely irrelevant. Just a reminder that there is NO NEED to register on the FirstPort portal. Our […]

An Intro to The Dovecote Residents’ Association Website

By Nige on February 1, 2023 at 6:59 pm
Type: Post Category: Handover
Tags: Announcements | Website

We have only been around for just under 3 years, but we finally have a website to give the residents some additional focus on activities going on in and around The Dovecote.