South West Devon MP Rebecca Smith has written a stern letter to the Managing Director of FirstPort property management company, demanding improvements for long-suffering constituents who live on FirstPort managed developments across the constituency.
Sharing her letter with affected constituents Rebecca stated:
Following a wave of fresh complaints from constituents living in FirstPort managed developments across South West Devon, I felt the moment had come to directly ask the Managing Director, just when will constituents across South West Devon see an improvement in customer service, billing, complaint handling, and transparency?
Having met with FirstPort regional management before Christmas, and then again with the Managing Director in the New Year, I have showcased a range of constituent complaints and obtained responses, requested explanations on the lack of audited accounts or expenditure reports, and sought assurances of service improvement. Progress and improvement has not yet materialised, and that is why I wrote to the Managing Director.
In the meantime, I encourage constituents to continue to make good use of the FirstPort complaints process, and the Property Ombudsman for complaints that have reached the end of the official complaint process. Details for how to submit a complaint can be found here.
More recently, constituents have indicated to me that they are withholding payments from FirstPort. Whilst I understand the sentiment, I urge caution with this approach. You will have likely signed legally binding contracts for services, and will now be very aware that FirstPort waste no time in applying fees for missed payments, and refer ‘bad debts’ to their collections agency. I would not wish for constituents to incur any more charges or penalties than are absolutely necessary.
And finally, leasehold constituents on housing developments across the country are seizing the opportunity for Right To Manage, which is a law that allows leaseholders to take over management of a building from the landlord. You can read more about this here:
https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/home_ownership/leasehold_and_commonhold/right_to_manage_for_leaseholders_of_flats
FirstPort senior executives have been called before MPs, and have said that they are committed to making improvements. I intend to hold them to account and I will of course update you on progress as it emerges. In the meantime, please do continue to send your feedback to me, so that I can hear from you first hand if you are experiencing a resolution to your issues, and monitor progress.
Please contact me on:
[email protected] or telephone: 01752 335 666
