This is the sort of dilemma leasehold owners in retirement sites in England and Wales can only dream about. Residents at Kyle Court in Ayr, a McCarthy and Stone site built in 1992 and managed (inevitably) by FirstPort, want to spend around £8,000 in the contingency fund on painting balconies and the outside walls. But […]
Stonewater pensioners ‘turn to Freemont Property Managers for right to manage’
July 23, 2016 By
Pensioners at two Stonewater housing association retirement sites are said to be seeking right to manage using Freemont Property Managers – the company founded by ex-Peverel politburo members. Some held senior positions in the company when Peverel’s subsidiary Cirrus was systematically cheating pensioners in a price fixing racket that was busted by the Office of […]
ARMA regulator’s sanctions against FirstPort ‘did not address seriousness of what took place’
June 28, 2016 By
The admonition delivered to FirstPort for attempting to sell off house managers’ flats has not satisfied complainant Alex Ellison. “I am, of course, pleased that you upheld my complaint and that you have imposed disciplinary sanctions on FirstPort,” she has written to the ARMA regulator Keith Hill. “… However, disciplinary sanctions alone do not seem to adequately […]
Dear ARMA and ARHM, why does FirstPort not put Appello contract out to tender?
June 23, 2016 By
A day after FirstPort Retirement was admonished by the Association of Residential Managing Agents a letter has just been sent off to the trade body’s CEO Nigel Glen questioning its tendering processes. Alan and Ann Merryweather, of Lyon Close in Clacton on Sea in Essex, want to know why a quote for a emergency cord […]
ARMA rules against FirstPort Retirement …
June 22, 2016 By
Humiliating criticism for the trouble property manager, but the path is now clear for it to apply for membership of the trade body The regulator of the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) has admonished on two counts Peverel / FirstPort Retirement, which was applying to join the organisation. But the decision means the controversial […]
ARMA regulator to rule on whether to admit FirstPort Retirement ‘within days’
June 10, 2016 By
After more than three months of deliberation, the Rt Hon Keith Hill, regulator of the Association of Residential Managing Agents, is poised to make a decision on whether Peverel / FirstPort Retirement is a fit and proper candidate to join the association. Alex Ellison, and others, made a series of complaints concerning Peverel / FirstPort […]
Tatton Court latest Cheshire site seeking to dump Tchenguiz / FirstPort
April 8, 2016 By
Tatton Court is the latest Cheshire retirement site wanting to be rid of the FirstPort / Tchenguiz management which dominates private retirement housing. “We feel that you are being deliberately awkward in blocking our claim,” the RTM directors write to Estates and Management, the Tchenguiz company that manages his freehold portfolio. “We also feel that […]
Housing and Care 21: We’ve made a mess at Ashfield, so manage the site yourselves
March 25, 2016 By
Housing and Care 21 handed over the management to residents at Ashfield, a retirement site in Telford in Shropshire, after admitting that it had been badly run. For the past three months, the complex of 26 semi and detached bungalows with a community centre and flat above has been self-managed by the residents through a […]
The Homestead next on FirstPort’s list to flog the house manager’s flat
March 5, 2016 By
Residents at The Homestead, a complex of 31 flats in Lytham St Anne’s, is the latest retirement site where FirstPort is angling for the sale of the house manager’s flat. The site was built in 1986, but almost certainly a lease was issued on the house manager’s flat in 2009, when Tchenguiz was stripping value […]
Regulator to rule on whether scandal-hit Peverel / FirstPort Retirement is fit to be a member of ARMA
March 3, 2016 By
FirstPort Retirement, formerly Peverel, should not be admitted to ARMA because it has an unaccounted-for portfolio of house managers’ flats and has a track record of misleading residents when trying to sell them. These were the arguments put on Monday to Keith Hill, a former New Labour housing minister, who is the regulator of ARMA […]
Avoid this poisoned chalice from Tchenguiz
February 18, 2016 By
A tactic to undermine residents’ right to manage ambitions by Estates and Management – which manages the various freehold vehicles of the Tchenguiz Family Trust, based in the British Virgin Islands – is to offer to dump FirstPort and replace it with another management company. And here they are: CPBigwood, Inspired Property Management, Warwick Estates […]
80% of Londoners like living in a flat, even ones run by FirstPort
February 1, 2016 By
FirstPort / Peverel, the country’s largest and most controversial apartment manager, has interviewed 738 Londoners and found that they quite like living in a flat. As they bought a flat or chose to rent in the first place, this is encouraging news and they don’t feel that they have made a mistake. It did not […]
