Recent Correspondence with FirstPort

By Nige on July 22, 2021 at 9:04 am
Type: News Category: Service Charges
Tags: FirstPort

As residents, this is what we have sent to FirstPort, bearing in mind that we are in credit so we don’t need to pay anything at this point:

As a heads up and to ensure we are clear, open and honest about next steps:

1. We will be challenging the admin fee and any costs you claim to have incurred prior to handover. That could mean that we submit a complaint to FirstPort and assuming this is not resolved to my satisfaction, we will refer this to TPO.

2. Worth being aware that beyond your fair usage policy of 3 referrals in FirstPort’s TPO membership year (that lead to a full review), each subsequent full review is chargeable at approx. £350+VAT. This charge is billed to FirstPort.

3. If all residents follow my approach, handling complaints could end up being a fairly costly exercise for FirstPort.

It would be helpful to our overall cause, if other residents emailed FirstPort with a similar statement. For any resident that owes money to FirstPort, you will also need to clarify whether you intend on paying FirstPort or whether you want to initiate an immediate challenge to the invoice.

In a separate email to FirstPort acting on behalf of the RA:

1. On the basis you now have the ability to create post-dated statements, can you provide an update on your statement that “…just 6 properties who owe money, and all are owing less than £30.” We now have 7 residents that have confirmed they have a statement suggesting they owe FirstPort money. Someone with debts in excess of £30.

2. On the basis that residents are planning on challenging FirstPort on the admin fee and any costs FirstPort claim to have incurred prior to handover, with a view to referring these to TPO, might it not be a good idea to engage with the RA seeking to negotiate a mutually agreeable resolution prior to any of them being referred to TPO? We haven’t mentioned at this stage that the RA will be co-ordinating with Soha. I’ll do that once Soha has a response from FirstPort to their questions and we agree an action plan.