How to Remove FirstPort from Your Residential Estate: A Director Guide

1. The Essential Prerequisite: Council Road Adoption (Section 38)

FirstPort almost always takes full operational control of an estate once the estate roads have been formally transferred and adopted by the local council.

Before council road adoption happens, attempting to take management away from the developer or FirstPort is significantly more difficult. While roads remain unadopted, the developer still holds major legal bonds with the local highways authority (such as Section 38 and Section 106 agreements), retention monies, and snagging liabilities. Developers will often resist handing over the Estate Management Company until their legal bond liabilities are fully discharged.

If your estate road is still private or undergoing council adoption, your primary strategic focus should be encouraging the council and developer to complete road adoption first. Once the road is adopted, FirstPort is fully in place, and the opportunity opens for residents to step forward and take over management.

2. Understanding the Corporate Structure: You Are Already a Company Member

For homeowners seeking to understand how their estate is managed, the starting point is looking at the corporate structure behind the development.

Everyone who owns a home on your estate is legally a member (or shareholder) of an Estate Management Company registered at Companies House, even though individual member names are not listed on the public register.

This company is governed by directors. In many cases, the directors currently listed are corporate entities such as Innovus Directors Limited, or individual officers like Philippa Flanegan (who holds multiple directorships across FirstPort-managed developments).

These appointed directors are the ones who formally contract FirstPort as the managing agent. Essentially, when FirstPort manages an estate, representatives associated with their corporate group hold the directorships, and those directors then engage FirstPort for property management services.

Before taking any steps, you should locate your Articles of Association. You can check your conveyancing documents from when you bought your home, download the incorporation filings directly from Companies House (under the "Filing history" tab for your company), or request a copy from Innovus. This confirms the exact registered company name you wish to become a director of, as well as your specific voting rules.

It is also important to address a common misconception regarding Right to Manage (RTM). Right to Manage under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 applies strictly to self-contained blocks of flats, and does not apply to freehold housing estates. Freehold estates cannot use RTM. Instead, your route is through Company Law: as members of the Estate Management Company, you have the legal right under the Companies Act 2006 to call an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), replace the appointed directors, and elect resident directors to the board.

3. Calling the EGM via Innovus (The Section 303 Requisition)

In order to replace the managing agent, residents must first become directors of their Estate Management Company by convening an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).

Residents cannot simply convene the meeting on their own without first formally requisitioning the company secretary to call it.

To requisition an EGM, you must submit a formal request to Innovus as the company secretary:

1. Email companysecretarial@innovus.co.uk demanding an EGM under Section 303 of the Companies Act 2006.

2. Copy help@firstport.co.uk. Note that FirstPort sends an automated reply stating this address is no longer monitored, but it remains actively logged.

3. Log a duplicate request through your online FirstPort resident portal account to ensure a timestamped ticket is recorded.

Under Section 303 of the Companies Act 2006, members holding at least 5% of the total voting rights have the statutory right to compel the company secretary to call an EGM within 21 days.

To make gathering this 5% simple, you can set up your estate on This Estate and pin our Section 303 Requisition Form directly to your community noticeboard. Your neighbours can digitally confirm their support in seconds, and the system compiles the confirmations for you to email directly to Innovus.

• Email companysecretarial@innovus.co.uk demanding an EGM under Section 303 of the Companies Act 2006.
• Copy help@firstport.co.uk (even if an automated reply is received).
• Submit a duplicate support ticket through your FirstPort online resident dashboard.
• Require the EGM notice and Microsoft Teams link to be circulated within 21 statutory days.

4. Voting at the EGM: The 1 Member = 1 Vote Principle and Proxy Submissions

Once your EGM request is processed, Innovus and FirstPort will schedule the meeting online via Microsoft Teams.

When organizing an estate, residents often look at the total number of houses and worry about attendance: "There are 90 homes here, we need to get 46 people to agree."

However, it is likely that in your Articles of Association, it states that votes belong to members rather than individual houses.

In many developments, any social housing on the estate owned by a housing association holds only one single member vote, regardless of how many individual properties they own. The tenants living in those homes are not able to vote or give a proxy vote, as the vote is managed directly by the owning organisation. This means that, for example, 30 social housing homes may not count as 30 separate votes, but rather as one collective member vote.

The same applies to private rental properties. Only the registered property owner can cast a vote or sign a proxy form. If you have rental properties on your estate, you will need to contact the owner directly, which can often be arranged via the local letting agent marketing the property, or through Land Registry records.

FirstPort and Innovus hold a list of homeowners, but this is often out of date, and they are unlikely to provide it directly.

This structure is often positive news for resident groups. On an estate with 90 homes where 30 are social housing, there may only be 61 voting members. That means only 31 votes (a simple majority of the 61 members) are required to pass the resolutions.

Relying on people attending the live Teams call can be difficult due to work and family commitments. The most effective approach is to collect PROXY FORMS. Proxy votes count legally on a poll exactly like live attendance.

The proxy form must specify three ordinary resolutions:

1. To appoint your nominated resident directors.

2. To appoint any additional resident directors that have put themselves forward.

3. To remove the current directors (Innovus and FirstPort representatives).

Innovus allows proxy forms to be submitted by email. You can set up an estate on This Estate, pin the proxy form to the top of your portal, and invite members to complete it online. The portal automatically emails the submissions to your organising team so you can forward them to companysecretarial@innovus.co.uk at least 48 hours before the meeting. You can also print physical copies and collect them in person.

5. Registering Resident Directors & Identity Verification

Once you achieve a vote with over 50% in favour, the meeting chair must declare the resolutions carried. The previously appointed directors are officially removed, and your resident directors are elected.

To formally update Companies House, each newly elected resident director completes two administrative steps:

Step 1: Obtain your Companies House Personal Code. Under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA), all UK company directors must verify their identity on the government website (gov.uk) using passport or photo ID to receive a unique Personal Code.

Step 2: Complete the official Innovus Director Appointment Form. Fill in your full name in capital letters, date of birth, Personal Code, service address (which keeps your home address off the public register), and signed Consent to Act statement.

Scan and email this completed form back to companysecretarial@innovus.co.uk. Innovus will then file the official AP01 appointment and TM01 termination at Companies House.

6. Taking Full Control: Self-Management (SIC 68320) vs. Hiring an Independent Agent

Once Innovus files the changes and you appear as the official Directors on Companies House, FirstPort no longer holds executive authority over your estate. The board belongs to the residents.

You now have two clear options for how your estate will be managed:

Option A: Self-Management (SIC Code 68320). You can register your company's Nature of Business on Companies House as SIC 68320 ("Management of real estate on a fee or contract basis"). Self-management saves money because you pay zero managing agent fees, but it requires volunteer resident directors to handle invoice collation, budgeting, contractor procurement, and grounds maintenance supervision.

Option B: Hire an Independent, Local Managing Agent (Recommended for Most Estates). For many estate directors, hiring a trusted, independent local property management company is vastly preferable. A good independent managing agent handles the administrative tasks: chasing late service charge payments, issuing legally compliant billing, vetting insured groundskeeping and tree-surgeon teams, and managing health and safety compliance, while answering directly to the resident board.

Once your new management structure is agreed, serve FirstPort with their formal Notice of Termination. It is highly recommended to give them three (3) months' written notice. Three months is standard in management agreements, prevents disputes over contractual notice, and provides a comfortable window to transfer bank balances, reserve funds, and contractor keys.

• Serve formal written notice giving 3 months notice to help@firstport.co.uk and companysecretarial@innovus.co.uk.
• Request the transfer of all reserve and sinking funds into a designated resident client bank account.
• Obtain all contractor keys for drainage attenuation, pump stations, and communal lighting.
• Request full accounting ledger reconciliations within 60 days of the handover date.