Barratt: FirstPort still has our money, two months after handover. Step in.
The Issue
What’s happened
Dalston Square is 585 Barratt-built homes in Hackney. This autumn our three leaseholder-owned companies took over managing the buildings from FirstPort, in a series of Right to Manage handovers on 28 August, 10 September and 19 October.
FirstPort still hasn’t handed over any of the service charge money or reserves leaseholders had already paid, and hasn’t committed to a date. Meanwhile our companies have had to insure fifteen high-rise buildings, pay for the site team and take on the safety duties that come with them.
The rules are clear
Under Right to Manage, the law says the money must be handed over on the day management changes hands, or as soon after as is reasonably practicable, with only costs already incurred kept back. FirstPort’s own trade body, The Property Institute (TPI), tells members they “Must follow” its guidance that “The outgoing agent must pass over any funds that aren’t required to meet commitments already made on the agreed date of handover”.
In December 2024 TPI suspended FirstPort for three months “due to a breach of membership rules”, as reported by Property Industry Eye. FirstPort said the suspension did “not relate to core business-wide practices, but to a specific issue in our handover process to a new managing agent”.
Barratt’s role
For two of our three phases Barratt is the landlord, and FirstPort holds the money on its behalf. Barratt has told FirstPort in writing to hand over the reserve funds. FirstPort says it must first finalise its accounts for the year to March 2026, which still haven’t been issued, nearly seven months after the year end. As we see it, the duty stays with Barratt as landlord.
Our local MPs, Diane Abbott and Meg Hillier, have taken up our case and written to both Barratt and FirstPort.
Where things stand (at 24 October)
- Our money. None has been handed over, for any phase. FirstPort’s last signed accounts, to March 2025, showed £1.37 million in reserve funds.
- Our insurance. Each company has had to buy its own buildings insurance from the day it took over, while the old policy, paid for from our service charges, carried on. Nearly two months after the first handover, the refund on the old policy still hasn’t been paid. FirstPort and its group broker, Knight Square Insurance Brokers, only sent the figures on 22 October: £339,475 on most of the policy. Our companies confirmed them the next day. There is still no date for payment, so our companies have to pay for the new insurance without the refund or any of the service charge money.
- Our records. Our solicitors served notices on Barratt for the financial records for Phases 2 and 3, due by 1 and 8 October. The balances, ledgers and reserve accounts haven’t arrived. Barratt has shared its construction records, but not the complete set of building safety records it kept for those buildings, including its safety case reports, which we first asked for on 4 September.
- Our £500k contract. FirstPort let a £491,625 contract to recarpet the corridors of all fifteen blocks, to be paid from our reserves, and paid half in advance. The work stopped part way, and a review FirstPort commissioned found that what was laid differs from the specification leaseholders were consulted on. FirstPort hasn’t proposed how to resolve it, and hasn’t replied to us on the carpets since 12 October. So a contract worth almost £500,000 is still in FirstPort’s hands.
What we’re asking
Barratt has already told FirstPort what it wants done on the money and the refund. We are asking Barratt to make sure FirstPort sees it through, and to:
- Hand over our money by 13 November, starting with the reserve funds, with a full account of anything kept back. If FirstPort won’t pay, Barratt, as landlord, should.
- Make sure our insurance refund is paid by 30 October, in full, straight to our companies and without deductions.
- Share our records by 6 November: the financial and building safety records the law requires, and tell us which ones don’t exist.
- Put the carpet contract right. By 1 December, agree with our companies how any faulty work will be corrected at no cost to leaseholders, and how the rest will be finished to the specification leaseholders were consulted on.
- Stand behind the buildings it built. By 1 January 2027, fund the surveys needed to check for any fire-safety or structural defects in the buildings Barratt built at Dalston Square, commit in writing to pay for putting right any they find, and agree a timetable to finish making good after its 2023–24 remediation works, so that none of the cost falls on leaseholders.
- Make it the rule on every Barratt development. Wherever Barratt is the landlord and FirstPort manages for it, commit that leaseholders who change manager get their money and records within 30 days of handover, and that Barratt will step in when they don’t.
Who should sign
Dalston Square leaseholders; anyone who lives in a Barratt-built development; and anyone who has left FirstPort, or is trying to.
Organised by leaseholders in Dalston Square.
Contact: dalstonsquareleaseholders@gmail.com
283
The Issue
What’s happened
Dalston Square is 585 Barratt-built homes in Hackney. This autumn our three leaseholder-owned companies took over managing the buildings from FirstPort, in a series of Right to Manage handovers on 28 August, 10 September and 19 October.
FirstPort still hasn’t handed over any of the service charge money or reserves leaseholders had already paid, and hasn’t committed to a date. Meanwhile our companies have had to insure fifteen high-rise buildings, pay for the site team and take on the safety duties that come with them.
The rules are clear
Under Right to Manage, the law says the money must be handed over on the day management changes hands, or as soon after as is reasonably practicable, with only costs already incurred kept back. FirstPort’s own trade body, The Property Institute (TPI), tells members they “Must follow” its guidance that “The outgoing agent must pass over any funds that aren’t required to meet commitments already made on the agreed date of handover”.
In December 2024 TPI suspended FirstPort for three months “due to a breach of membership rules”, as reported by Property Industry Eye. FirstPort said the suspension did “not relate to core business-wide practices, but to a specific issue in our handover process to a new managing agent”.
Barratt’s role
For two of our three phases Barratt is the landlord, and FirstPort holds the money on its behalf. Barratt has told FirstPort in writing to hand over the reserve funds. FirstPort says it must first finalise its accounts for the year to March 2026, which still haven’t been issued, nearly seven months after the year end. As we see it, the duty stays with Barratt as landlord.
Our local MPs, Diane Abbott and Meg Hillier, have taken up our case and written to both Barratt and FirstPort.
Where things stand (at 24 October)
- Our money. None has been handed over, for any phase. FirstPort’s last signed accounts, to March 2025, showed £1.37 million in reserve funds.
- Our insurance. Each company has had to buy its own buildings insurance from the day it took over, while the old policy, paid for from our service charges, carried on. Nearly two months after the first handover, the refund on the old policy still hasn’t been paid. FirstPort and its group broker, Knight Square Insurance Brokers, only sent the figures on 22 October: £339,475 on most of the policy. Our companies confirmed them the next day. There is still no date for payment, so our companies have to pay for the new insurance without the refund or any of the service charge money.
- Our records. Our solicitors served notices on Barratt for the financial records for Phases 2 and 3, due by 1 and 8 October. The balances, ledgers and reserve accounts haven’t arrived. Barratt has shared its construction records, but not the complete set of building safety records it kept for those buildings, including its safety case reports, which we first asked for on 4 September.
- Our £500k contract. FirstPort let a £491,625 contract to recarpet the corridors of all fifteen blocks, to be paid from our reserves, and paid half in advance. The work stopped part way, and a review FirstPort commissioned found that what was laid differs from the specification leaseholders were consulted on. FirstPort hasn’t proposed how to resolve it, and hasn’t replied to us on the carpets since 12 October. So a contract worth almost £500,000 is still in FirstPort’s hands.
What we’re asking
Barratt has already told FirstPort what it wants done on the money and the refund. We are asking Barratt to make sure FirstPort sees it through, and to:
- Hand over our money by 13 November, starting with the reserve funds, with a full account of anything kept back. If FirstPort won’t pay, Barratt, as landlord, should.
- Make sure our insurance refund is paid by 30 October, in full, straight to our companies and without deductions.
- Share our records by 6 November: the financial and building safety records the law requires, and tell us which ones don’t exist.
- Put the carpet contract right. By 1 December, agree with our companies how any faulty work will be corrected at no cost to leaseholders, and how the rest will be finished to the specification leaseholders were consulted on.
- Stand behind the buildings it built. By 1 January 2027, fund the surveys needed to check for any fire-safety or structural defects in the buildings Barratt built at Dalston Square, commit in writing to pay for putting right any they find, and agree a timetable to finish making good after its 2023–24 remediation works, so that none of the cost falls on leaseholders.
- Make it the rule on every Barratt development. Wherever Barratt is the landlord and FirstPort manages for it, commit that leaseholders who change manager get their money and records within 30 days of handover, and that Barratt will step in when they don’t.
Who should sign
Dalston Square leaseholders; anyone who lives in a Barratt-built development; and anyone who has left FirstPort, or is trying to.
Organised by leaseholders in Dalston Square.
Contact: dalstonsquareleaseholders@gmail.com
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Petition created on 24 October 2026