March 29, 2024

Lansdowne Court wonders whether a News on the Block Award for FirstPort is (strictly speaking) deserved

LansdowneCourtThis letter of late November arrived from the mobilising residents of Lansdowne Court in Hove.

It should have been shared earlier (and did FirstPort win anything?):

17 November 2015

Dear Ms Crabtree

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT AWARDS 2015-16 – FIRSTPORT

In confirmation of our telephone conversation earlier today, I and other flat owners at Lansdowne Court in Hove would like to register a negative vote against FirstPort in the forthcoming round of Property Management Awards 2015-16.

There are 18 flats in Lansdowne Court and not one owner would dream of saying anything good about FirstPort, let alone voting to nominate them for an award of any kind. The service FirstPort provide, beyond the simplest of tasks, is abysmal. It would be a travesty for FirstPort to be awarded anything; indeed, any votes received in favour of FirstPort should be treated with due caution.

I enclose a copy of the Oct 14 Private Eye article about FirstPort and would urge you to go to the website of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership – http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com – to learn more about the overall dealings of the Company. At the working level, I enclose, as just one simple example, a selection of letters and emails over the last year about the refurbishment/replacement of the front-door at Lansdowne Court; the level of incompetence within the management of FirstPort is staggering.

The reputation of your organisation would be diminished if FirstPort featured as the recipient of an award from News On The Block.

Yours sincerely

Mr James Izzard

Comments

  1. Michael Hollands says

    First Port as a company did not win any awards but some of their staff did.
    Winner Concierge of the year.
    Highly Commended. London Property Manager of the year. 2 Managers
    Highly Commnded. Regional Property Manager of the year 1 Manager

  2. Michael Epstein says

    Am i correct in believing that a company can nominate themselves for a News on the Block award?

    • Michael Hollsnds says

      Well at least they do not have the ARMA Disciplinary Board doing the judging.
      If that was the case we would still be waiting to hear the 2014 Winners.

  3. News on The Block is run by Nic Shulman, who is coy about his background and would like us to think he was drawn to property management while studying. In fact he is the spawn of one of the men responsible for Solitaire Property Management, that infamous FirstPort company about which The Truth was told, and the embryo developed from those dark origins when he seemed to be able to get special access to interview senior Peverel executives with a PR message to get across.

    NoTB these days is an industry “tart”, it sells awards in the round to people who pay for them eg through advertising, sponsoring awards and conferences, and attending its dinners. Almost none of its funding come from leaseholders, like ARMA, so they are not really interested what we think. To a large extent this is how all associated property management interests work.

    Do not be fooled into thinking the awards are an honest reflection of what done-to users think of their services, the only people who claim that are FirstPort who seem overcome with orgiastic delight when their investment earns them so much as an “also nominated”.