How can you help with my sale or remortgage?

1. Introduction

Our specialist Property Transfer team are dedicated to supporting you when:

• Selling your FirstPort managed home
• Re-mortgaging your FirstPort managed home
• Changing the ownership of your FirstPort managed home
• Releasing equity from your FirstPort managed home

You can get in touch by setting up a case on My Home, our online customer account. Alternatively, you or your legal representative can also contact us by completing our Property Transfer form.

Property Transfer are often asked to help legal representatives during the sale of a FirstPort managed property. The following information covers the key steps in the process and the most frequently asked questions:

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2. Management Information Pack (MIP) request

I want to sell my property. What do I do? We recommend you instruct a legal representative to help you manage this process. They should contact us on your behalf to make us aware of the sale, and if they consider it necessary, they can request a Management Information Pack. Purchase of a Management Information Pack built around the Law Society LPE1 (Leasehold) or FME1 (Freehold) form is not mandatory. Please discuss with your legal representative if you need it. 

I am buying a property managed by FirstPort. What do you do?
Details of who we are, what we do and what living on a managed development will mean for you can be found here.

How long does it take to get the Management Information Pack and how much does it cost?
Turnaround time is determined by the service selected when requesting the pack. Countdown starts from the date we receive our requirements, which often includes a set fee, a Lease or TP1 (Transfer) and OCE (Office Copy Entries). Your legal representative will have sourced these from Land Registry to send to us.

The price depends on the service chosen (Standard, Gold or Platinum) and the specific details of your property. We send a bespoke response by email for every webform request we receive. Our three core services offerings for Management Information Packs are:

• Standard turnaround service is 15 business days
• Gold turnaround service (where available) is 5 business days
• Platinum turnaround service is 2 business days

What does the Management Information Pack include?
The pack is an electronic bundle of documents and information, sent by email and made on a case-by-case basis, incorporating key information the buyer needs to know about the property on behalf of FirstPort. Where applicable and if available it will include:

• LPE1 (Leasehold Property Enquiries) or FME1 (Freehold Management Enquiries) Form
• Completion requirements within an Information Sheet
• Service Charge Statement of Account
• Most recent Estimate/Budget
• Up to 3 years’ Audited Management Accounts
• Fire Risk Assessment
• Health and Safety Report
• Asbestos report
• Insurance certificates
• Major Works notices
• Memo & Arts

The information supplied in our Management Information Packs is treated as valid for 6 months from the date of issue.

I am selling my property. What happens to the service charges during the process?

It is very important that there are no outstanding payments on an account at the time of sale completion, therefore please pay any invoices you receive throughout the process as outstanding charges could delay the sale. However, we recommend you cancel any related Direct Debits once you move out.

We can provide all information required to a legal representative to agree apportionments to ensure billed charges covering the periods of ownership and completion will be paid by the correct customer. The service charge is based on an estimated figure and following the year-end audit, any resultant surplus or deficit would be credited or debited to the owner at that time, so the legal representative should also hold a retention to allow for any adjustments.

3. Pack preparation

There is a delay with the Management Information Pack that is affecting the property sale. Why?

Our fees link to a strict release timeframe, and turnaround time is determined by the service selected when requesting the pack. Please check with your legal representative as to which service they requested, and the date all our requirements were sent in.

Please be aware any Property Transfer fees should be paid by bank transfer into our designated Property Transfer bank account, purposely separate to your FirstPort service charge account.

4. Additional enquiries

I sent some additional questions to the Property Transfer team, but I have not yet received a response. What is happening?
As we coordinate responses from across our teams, our standard resolution time is 10 working days. Please be assured we will respond to you as soon as possible and all your open cases will have status updates live in your My Home account. Please do not duplicate your correspondence as this will impact our processing time for dealing with your enquiries. Instead, please reply to emails already sent as they include your case number and help us keep all your information together.

I would like to speak to the Property Transfer team. How do I contact them?
As we liaise directly with your legal representative on your behalf, we recommend contacting them for any information or questions you have. If they are unsure about anything during the process, they can get in touch by completing our contact form.

If you would like an update on your case, please check My Home to access the status in real-time.

5. Post completion

I have sold my property and moved out. Why am I still on the account or being billed?
Congratulations, we wish you all the best in your new home!

There are often a few steps to be actioned before we can change over the property account into your ownership. If you think your legal representative may not have let us know yet, please contact us to confirm your completion date. We can then put your account on hold and recognise your change of status.

It will also be worthwhile checking if your legal representative has provided all the necessary information (including the new owner’s legal representative’s email address) to help us complete the transfer.

You will now have a window of time to download any copies of key documents from My Home and we also recommend cancelling any Direct Debits linked to the property.

I legally own the property, and I have moved in. Why can I not access My Home?
Congratulations, we wish you all the best in your new home!

If you think your legal representative may not have told us yet, please contact us to confirm completion date and your contact details so we can start building your account.

You will only be able to register for My Home once you are formally added into our system as the account holder. These are the main reasons that could delay the changeover of ownership:

• Outstanding charges from the previous owner. We cannot change over an account if there are any monies owed from the previous owner invoiced before the date of completion, to prevent any liability passing on to you. We can provide a Statement of Account to assist with post-completion apportionments, but the legal representatives involved need to agree how to clear this down.
• Information missing from your legal representative. Please check with your legal representative if all fees and files requested on our completion requirements ‘Information Sheet’ have been sent in, as we are unable to change over an account until we receive these.

6. Account changeover

I legally own the property, and I have moved in. What happens now?  
When all the transfer requirements have been met, we will finalise and provide your legal representative with the paperwork required to register your new ownership at the Land Registry. We will also complete your account set up to add you into our system as the account holder, which will allow you to register for My Home.

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