FirstPort annual accounts

By now you will have received the accounts from FirstPort, and they are pretty much as usual.

The first thing is that these accounts are to the end of June 2017, so its taken FirstPort over 6 months to produce them. Not exactly inspiring performance.

The second thing is that during that year they spent £620.17 more than they had predicted. This comes to £7.56 per household, so in the greater scheme of things its not important. Most of it comes from increases in insurance and maintenance costs which don't go to FirstPort.

However FirstPort is still charging us £1,233.75 in "accounts preparation fees". As followers of this website will know, this is a general charge that FirstPort make "to cover some of [their] cost of employing in house accountants". In other words, its a flat rate imposed on our estate regardless of the amount of work that these accountants actually do for us. Given the simplicity of our estate compared to the blocks of leasehold flats normally managed by FirstPort, and the fact that the accounts are held electronically, it seems unlikely that this is providing us good value for money.

Also, while I have been talking to other possible estate managers (of which I will write more in another post), one of them pointed out that there is no actual requirement for audited accounts in the Transfer Document. The Accountant's Report also opens with a similar statement, and goes on to say that it is not actually an audit. So, as long as we think we can trust the managing agent not to actually embezzle money from us (as opposed to inflating the management fees), we should be able to avoid this expense entirely.