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Karen Stokes feels like she pays a “second council tax” because of the amount of money she has to give to management company FirstPort to take care of the small balancing pond near her house in Leicestershire. The firm maintains the pond and the fencing around it to prevent flooding. This year’s bill was £9,031 for the entire estate, which works out to about £75 per household. This bill also included contributions to terrorism insurance.
Eight years ago, Karen and Tony bought their new-build home freehold, which means they own the property and the land the house is built on. For the first two years, they didn’t receive any bills, but after that FirstPort demanded a fee of £117.23 per household. Karen says she was outraged by the increase, and after leafleting every house on the estate, she was able to negotiate a lower fee for all 120 households.
The majority of the most recent bill was for management fees, and only £1,158 of the total figure went toward maintenance costs. The company claims it is “common practice” to charge for terrorism insurance, which Sebastian O’Kelly, director of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership charity, finds odd. He claims there wouldn’t be terrorism insurance on a pond, except for a managing company to make more money.
Karen has spent weeks disputing new charges from FirstPort on behalf of everyone living on the estate and is already preparing for the next bill. Pete Murray, a former Parish Councillor, set up a committee to help residents living on an estate in Fernwood, Newark, who were having trouble with FirstPort. However, the company would eventually stop engaging with the committee, and Pete has since stopped helping residents.
More than 30 MPs wrote to FirstPort’s managing director in November after receiving complaints from their constituents. A company spokesperson said that their fees are reasonable and that they work hard to meet their customer’s high standards. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has stated that it is committed to ending the injustice of “fleecehold” private estates and unfair costs. Next year, they plan to consult on the best way to end this and will include options to reduce the prevalence of private management of these estates, which is the root cause of the problem some homeowners face
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