FirstPort Scotland Reviews 

My Gran has recently moved into Silvas Court and the support have been outstanding. Especially from Ron the manager there he has been very helpful with the move and continues to be a great manager everyday. My Gran is loving the new home and everyone it has to offer.

You are an awful business! We've been living on our estate for 5 years and you are still sending us all random bills from 3 years ago! Absolutely disgusted! I'd advise no one buys a property where this company is involved!!

Completely incompetent. Mistake followed by mistake followed by mistake. No accountability, no ownership, no communication.

Terrible company. If you are looking to buy a new build and this company is your leaseholder, I would advise you to not buy and look elsewhere.

I would just like to say what a complete breath of fresh air to have a manager who genuinely cares about her residents. When Sallie Murphy arrived at Redvers Court Warlingham I honestly thought nothing would change but how wrong we were.

She is super-efficient, friendly, helpful, pro-active, follows-up on matters and quite simply a truly outstanding Manager.

I think the big difference with Sallie is she is very much a ‘people person’ who obviously enjoys what she does, is interested in her residents and goes out of her way to ensure our welfare is her No 1 priority.

Well done First Port and thank you for finding her.

Brian & Jacqui Saunders

Have had several issues with first port, being over charged, told i hadn't paid an amount on purchasing the house, had to go back to my solicitor and provide evidence, contact is poor and pretty sure we are generally being ripped off. Do your research on new build management fees before purchasing. Ours currently stand at £300 a year, and we pay full council tax. First Port also seem reluctant to provide me with detail expenditure of our estate.

The Meads - Windsor
The Meads - Windsor . I have been in my new home at the Meads now for 7 months. This is the best thing I have done, I feel so safe and looked after. Our Manageress Maxine - well, what a lovely caring lady she is, nothing is to much for her and she is always on the go around our building, making sure everything is perfect. Additionally, Maxine has always got a smile on her face when we leave and enter the The Meads, she also has time for conversations with all of us. I think I can speak for all of the residents, that we are all very lucky to have a Manageress like Maxine.

This review is from Connie at Chancery Court.
Right at the beginning of corona virus, weren't we lucky to get a breath of fresh air called Madeleine our new manager at Chancery Court.
She very professional but also very caring of everyone, she goes over and above her duties to make us feel happy.
Well done Madeleine and Thank you for all you do.

I would like to write a review on the new Manager Kathy at Badgers Court Epsom. She has been a breath of fresh air. Very friendly and caring. She has established a good rapport the the residents and has excellent communication skills. Emailing regular updates and calling residents everyday to check on their well-being. I can’t praise her highly enough.

Worst company I have ever had to deal with

Just tried to call the Alterations team, was directed to the retirement team who couldn’t help me. They gave me the alterations team phone number, I called that number and guess what due to COVID, they are not working. A totally shambolic company.

As one of the owners of a prestigious Harbourside development in Bristol, I have notified First Ports
Property Manager in November last year that the key fob, and video entrance intercom was broken and that only the key pad lock is still working, and that no maintenance work has been carried out inside the area inside the entrance to the apartments, ie green algae on stairways, paths, and limescale (stalagmites) deposits on pathways to entrances.
As of todays date 20/02/2021 nothing has been done, only pathetic excuses. I am now in dispute along with the others owners and refusing to pay our Maintenance
fees.

First Port are absolutely diabolical. Where do I begin.
They are changing the door systems for all of the tenants properties have now left the door so it will not close at all so anyone can walk in any time rape or murder someone and get away with it. No security at all for families and people who live alone. In short they have put lives at risk.

I live in Lime Quarter and the residents manager Latifah has been really helpful in resolving issues for the residents. Recently I had a parcel delivered but I didn't actually sign for it, and I was having difficulty getting a response from the courier. Latifah made a lot of effort to ask around and eventually helped me find my parcel which was misplaced to another flat.

I have to say my experience with Firstport has been excellent, thanks to the brilliant property manager Dawn Harrell at Kiln House, who is always is happy to help, quick to respond and action issues swiftly. Thank you.

I just feel that at this awful time of Covid 19 that I would like to say how lucky I am to be living in Parsonage Court Highworth.
It is such a joy to be in a place where you feel safe and secure. I have lived here for six years and it's such a happy place to be. This is however due to our resident Manager Lorraine Jack who is such a helpful and happy person to deal with. Nothing is too much trouble and she will always help with what ever you require. If by any chance she doesn't know then she will find out and make sure your happy with the answer. We are kept informed of all that goes on with a monthly news letter.
Both her and husband Bob are such lovely people. Nothing is too much trouble and I feel blessed to live here. Ann Bourne-Bryant

Communal Services Electricity large cost increase
(Ref issue raised by June, 16th Nov 2020)

You advise FirstPort have not given clarification on the large increase in the Communal Services Electricity charges at your development in 2018/ 19. This is similar to what happened at our Development, (Ferryhill Court, Aberdeen), my summary below, may help to clarify and also how it may be possible to reduce costs.

In Feb 2019, FirstPort presented the Annual Budget Statement for 2017/ 18 and advised the Communal Services Electricity was overspent by £2,300. They also advised this was common to ALL FirstPort Retirement Developments and was due to a large increase in EDF Electricity tariffs and a very bad winter.

I requested the EDF monthly bills for the common services electricity, for 2017/ 18 & the 3 previous years. When I reviewed these, the Electricity usage in each of the 4 years was similar (approx 80,000kWhr/ year), and the tariff increases did not reflect the large cost increase. The increase was actually because a new “Total Distribution charge” had been included in the EDF monthly bills starting Feb 2018, increasing costs by approx £1,900/ year.

It was difficult getting an explanation from FirstPort & their energy consultant, Energycentric but eventually it was identified the new “Total Distribution charge” was because of a mandatory regulation change (P272) requiring “large business” users change to Half Hr (HH) metering instead of Non-Half Hr (NHH).

P272 regulation identified a “large business” would have an Electricity usage over 100,000kWhr/ year. Retirement Developments normally use much less Electricity than this and FirstPort/ Energycentric were requested to advise. Eventually we were advised that although each development was billed individually by EDF, they were all under 1 contract. Energycentric advised that FirstPort had been notified of the HH metering change but FirstPort could not explain why this & the increase in costs had not been communicated to Owners or included in the annual budgets. We were also advised that once changed to HH the metering could not be changed back to NHH and the new “Total Distribution charge” could not be removed.
The various responses were not very clearly written and FirstPort were requested to summarise in a format that could be easily understood by residents in ALL affected Developments, but have not done this.

Electricity cost reduction in 2020
When reviewing the EDF monthly bills, it was clear that most of the electricity was being used at the day rate tariff and very little at the cheaper night rate tariff. This was because the storage heaters were being charged up during peak day hrs only, 8hrs/ day for approx 6 months/ year, used approx 40,000kWhr which was approx 50% of the Electricity usage.

FirstPort/ Energycentric could not clarify the actual cheaper night rate times & eventually, gave consent to contact EDF large business team directly, who advised it was 12midnight to 7am.

In Dec 2019, the storage heaters charge time was changed to the EDF night rate times, the actual electricity usage is the still the same but the cost has now reduced by approx 12%, £1,500/ year.

08/12 Update, still no response following this review. It would appear they have one member of staff covering twitter and here. £375 for a 5 day turn around ...3 weeks on still waiting. Please contact me asap

As per the other review below we are selling our house, all we need to exchange is the Management Pack.

Paid for a 5 day turn around, they sent a few statements and a faq sheet (which was wrong). It said Information sheet to follow........still waiting over 2 weeks later no news what so ever.

Tried to call, first time 45 minute wait to be told they cant help they are only fielding calls. second time was on hold for over 45 minutes and then an automated message said we cant take your call goodbye and the phone went dead!

So in short we paid for 5 day SLA and we were sent a few statement and now being ignored.

Can someone please help! this could potentially costs us allot of money and the chain to break.

Appreciate it is a busy time but silence is not the answer, our Solicitor has heard nothing either!

Very poor service

Trying to sell my flat, applied for a management pack on 2nd November, paying the extra £50 to expedite this as urgent. The pack was sent and received on 11th November but did not include a crucial 'information sheet'. The property transfer team won't talk to me, even though the property belongs to me and despite being promised this daily, it still has not been actioned. This is holding up the entire chain and costing thousands as well as threatening to make the entire chain fall through but still they are incapable of answering calls or actioning the most simple of tasks. The worst service I could even begin to imagine and peoples lives are being affected and potentially becoming homeless by this but still nothing is done. I pity anyone who has to have any contact with this company.

I would have awarded zero stars had this been possible! Having sold my flat, I cannot overstate my relief at no longer having to deal (both as an individual proprietor and as Chairman of the development's Owners Association) with this truly appalling Factor.

Ironically, we acquired FirstPort Scotland as our Factor in error, following the collapse of our original developer and its associated management company. Our Owners Association, which had by then acquired the right to appoint our own Factor, managed perfectly well for a couple of years, including arranging our own buildings insurance, defect correction under warranty, and site maintenance: this took time and effort, but it worked! Out of the blue, our developer's successor, who completed the construction of an adjacent, unfinished development, appointed Peverel Scotland (subsequently renamed FirstPort Scotland) as Factor for both developments, wrongly asserting that we constituted a single entity. Although that developer eventually admitted their error, and that they had no right to appoint a Factor for our development, a majority of owners voted to agree a factoring contract with FirstPort: bad mistake!!

Since then, we have been subject to years of appalling customer service; the appointment of remote, rather than local, contractors; shoddy maintenance by FirstPort's preferred contractors; incorrect invoices; and repeated threats of legal action for non-settlement of invoices whilst inaccuracies were being resolved.

You may well wonder why we did not appoint an alternative Factor. Whilst we did agree terms with an alternative Factor, it was first necessary to resolve all outstanding issues with FirstPort, which dragged on, and on, and on....

If your developer initially appoints FirstPort Scotland as your Factor, I would urge you to appoint an alternative Factor at the earliest opportunity.