It appears that fears that McCarthy & Stone could be about to follow in the steps of the utterly discredited Peverel/ Firstport are coming closer to fruition.
As the Tchenguiz freeholding companies began to struggle financially pressure was exerted on their connected management company(Peverel/Firstport) to increase income.
This was at the root of all the scandals that beset Peverel/Firstport.
This is why service levels fell and why needless work was ordered to be done at vastly inflated prices and why undisclosed insurance commissions of up to 40% were the oreder of the day.
It was also the key driver in the price fixing fraud.
So bad did it get that a few years ago McCarthy & Stone sacked Peverel/Firstport from all the developments that they had not sold the freehold off and appointed their in house property management company to manage their developments.
Whilst welcoming the sacking of Peverel/Firstport About Firstport warned that should McCarthy & Stone ever be put under any financial pressure, the temptation to fleece McCarthy & Stone residents would be all too tempting as revenues could be enhanced via their property management division.
McCarthy & Stone are finding it much more difficult to sell their developments.
And no, it is nothing to do with Brexit!
Basically they can no longer hide away from the fact that purchasing a flat in a retirement development is extremely poor value for money.
No longer can they disguise the true costs of maintenance charges, the ground rent (which is money for absolutely nothing except to increase McCarthy & Stone profits)
Nor can they deny the catastrophic falls in re-sale prices.
For a company eager to improve their reputation which had been tarnished by their association with Peverel/Firstport, it did seem strange that they appointed Paul Lestor, the former CEO of the Peverel/Firstport parent company as a director?
Everything for a reason though? And that reason should alarm every McCarthy & Stone resident!
About Firstport has discovered that a new holding company Appello Holdings has been set up with Paul Lestor as a director.
Now there is a direct link between Appello and McCarthy & Stone
Under the Equistone arrangement Appello has been hived off from Firstport with Firstport holding all the liabilities.
So in the event of a Firstport default, Appello will be free from any liability.
Currently Appello warden call/alarm systems attract a profit margin of 61%
In the last year as trading became more difficult for McCarthy & Stone profits at their property management arm doubled!
Many McCarthy & Stone developments are starting to notice that charges are increasing whilst services are getting worse.
As was the case with Peverel/Firstport residents are beginning to excercise their rights to appoint a managing agent of their choice and dismiss McCarthy & Stone a managers.
This has so alarmed McCarthy & Stone that About Firstport has heard of a case where a senior manager took a plane from Bournemouth( it may have been Southampton?) to Manchester to try to thwart a right to manage action.
His journey north proved to be fruitless as the residents completed their RTM and are much happier as a result.
