Right to Manage Handover with Porter?

We’ve just taken over the right to manage at a block with a porter. The decision to remain with the existing management was taken (not by me as I’d started this process for the obvious reasons – useless and non-communicative management – but I had to go with the vote).

We now have the situation that we cannot get the previous/existing management to pass the paperwork for the live-in porter to us. At our first meeting, the manager (the same one as previously) was very clear that he had instructions from the freeholder that he was not to pass any information onto us about the porter and the accommodation (a flat belonging to the freeholder).

We did get a contract from the porter from 2010 which was just a basic outline of his salary then and duties. We have not seen the tenancy agreement – this is now over a month ago. We were being pushed into the agent’s own ‘concierge’ service for managing the porter – and subsequently found that they already did this despite denying all knowledge of this and a copy of the contract – or tenancy agreement

My understanding is that all paperwork is to be passed from old to new – so surely easier to go from same to same – sadly not.

The porter is being paid, he has a license to occupy his flat, with one month’s notice (just information ‘gleaned’ from bits told to us and passed to us from the porter) immediate vacation if he leaves and his contract has 3-month notice.

Question – how do we insist on seeing these contracts – up-to-date ones?

2nd Question – do we have to take on the ‘concierge’ service (includes H+S courses etc which he has already done this year) or as I believed the new management take him on?

They have said that they cannot ‘tupe’ him as they already employ him.

We have emailed with deadlines for information and had ‘oops sorry just seen this’ days after the deadline and usually on a Friday. I can’t say ‘I told you so’ to the others but I would like to.

We have had a slight complication now that there has been a pretty significant fire in a flat – we instructed the insurance to be rolled over but now had an email from the management asking about the insurance, the freeholder’s solicitor has written to the company that did our RTM process asking for sight of the insurance documentation.

Obviously, we’ve supplied new management with copy emails with our instructions to roll over and for the RTM company to give instructions that the old management is now the new management and to contact them.

I know that the handover is slow and often seems deliberately slow but this seems all very unnecessary.

Where do we go from here …. anyone?

A couple of the directors are all for ‘legal advice’ but until we know what we are asking I feel it may be a waste of time – legals will answer the question we ask, but we are not exactly clear about what we should be doing with this obstructive situation.

My temptation is to sit back and let the management/old management sort it out as would happen if it had been two different companies.

Harlequin Garden

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