u/Ravenclaw_Starshower

My mum is almost 90 years old, partially sighted, and lives in a leasehold flat (England) for over 55s run by FirstPort. The community has a ‘warden’ who lives on-site. Mum likes the idea of having someone on site if there’s an emergency but doesn’t need care. There's a monthly service charge as expected.

The problem my mum is facing currently is that one of the previous wardens set fire to part of the building through possible negligence. No one was hurt thank goodness, but the fire damaged the wiring for the remote access for around a dozen residents. This means that the speaker system and building front door unlock system that delivery drivers and visitors use no longer works. It means my mum tries to hurry to answer the door, because delivery drivers don’t wait. It’s also a safety issue because she can’t even see or confirm who is at the building front door until she opens it. I should clarify she lives in a first floor flat with a stairlift in the corridor. She doesn’t need the stairlift currently but her neighbours do.

FirstPort and their insurance company have been battling it out for 3 years now since it happened. FirstPort refuse to repair the remote access functionality in the meantime, which I think is disgraceful. The monthly service charges have not been discounted. There has even been an investigation by her local MP into this company’s service charges and practices, which we both contributed to, but I don’t think anything has come of it. My mum is worried that eventually, this will limit her independence. 

She genuinely sees this flat as her ‘last stop’. She has friends and a community there. She doesn’t want to move. But even if she did, a lack of remote access would severely affect property value for a first floor retirement flat.

She wants to investigate suing FirstPort as a mechanism to get them to fix the remote access. I think that’s a lot to take on at her age, but she’s feisty and doesn’t like the injustice of it all. She intends to stop in at a solicitor soon to get advice, but I wanted to ask here if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, even if the suggestion is ‘don’t bother’. Thank you!