Harper Stone Properties Ltd Reviews 48

Not sure why you’d engage with HS after these reviews but don’t! They dodge all responsibility to the point where I’m running around doing their job. Make your life easier and pick someone else!

Harper Stone blatantly STOLE our income we got for years from renting out a spare parking space. Instead of offsetting it against our communal bills (as instructed) they collected it and kept it for themselves and never once passed it on, despite Harpreet promising us that adjusted invoices would be sent to all. This never happened and we finally got rid of HS in January after two terrible years. We never got the money back. Only 5 stars or scathing 1 star reviews, no 4, 3 or 2 stars ….. isn’t that suspicious!

The worst company I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Any 5-star reviews are so clearly in-house. Corruption is rife, overcharging clients for unnecessary building works and adding extra fees just for the privilege. If and that's a massive IF you ever get a response, their work is sloppy, half-arsed, and cost-cutting, shaving any profits for themselves. Truly a miserable experience. Avoid at all costs.

Update November 2023

Harper Stone finally in the summer sent round contractors who set up scaffolding but just ended up re pointing the brickwork and left the exterior of my flat covered in brick dust. Come this last weekend and the heavy rain and nothing is fixed in fact it is worse. They sent the same contractors round who literally laughed at the amount of damp in my plaster and blamed insulation fitted years ago. So it is the best part of a year and nothing has been fixed and I can't use the room and I can't rent or sell the place. If you have any way to get rid of this dreadful agency do it.

As a leaseholder I have found this company negligent. I have had a penetrating damp issue since early December 2022 which has not allowed me to use my bedroom. They have confirmed this is the case and yet two and a half months on and it has not been fixed. Further it has developed into Black Mould as of now.

If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of having this managing agent foisted upon you then ideally you need to look to remove them.

Some possible useful advice at Brighton's Lease Advice or from the leaseholder advisory service.

We've been with Harper Stone for a year now and pleased to say things are being run well. They always pick up the phone, which can't be said of our previous agent and they sorted out the problem with the pigeons quickly. I'm surprised to see others don't have the same experience, no issues from us!

Disgusting company! do not rent a property if Harper Stone are in charge of the maintenance! They will lie to you, make arrangements to fix/redecorate your flat then cancel at the last minute. They are rude and have no idea what customer service is.

This firm is dishonest to the core. Service Charge were excessive all along, hidden fees and dodgy arrangements with all their contractors. There is nothing more to say : if you happen to be managed by them, look at your way to transfer management to your own RTM company asap...

I have rated this review at 1 star as I can't give 0 stars. We bought a new flat recently and Harper Stone are the managing agents. They are disorganised, non-responsive, totally incompetent and cannot even produce accurate budgets and invoices. If you come across this company, avoid at all costs.

Harper Stone have been so much more responsive than our previous agents. I'm really surprised by some of the negative comments, which don't reflect my experience. In particular, their new e-notice board means we get regular updates posted on works and other issues with the building.

I'm not sure where to start. I don't ever leave reviews (good or bad) but Harper Stone are an absolute joke. They took over the management of the block of flats and promised the earth but did absolutely nothing in return.
Avoid, don't make the same mistake I did. They seemed so nice at the start. Lol. It makes me laugh to think how stupid I was for believing them.

Communications ignored or followed by very delayed responses. Repairs not completed or completed many months after requested. Very high staff turnover making it difficult to manage issues. Major works not always completed to full specification provided to lessees. Works suspiciously always completed by contractors who are from Brighton & Hove rather than local to the managed property. Documented Health and Safety failings (Google- Harper Stone fire). Conflicts of interest where Harper Stone is managing properties of family-related Freeholders, not illegal but difficult to hold the managing agent and freeholder to account. Costs always rising with opaque accounting and significant expenses categorised under very broad balance sheet entries. Lessees looking to arrange RTM. Questionable 5 star reviews on this site and Google Reviews.

I don't want to see this company go out of business, rebrand or be taken over by RTM, I just want them to do better.

On the plus side, the cleaning contractor does an excellent job, completes maintenance when requested that I'm confident isn't in their job and are super friendly!

Thank goodness that the leaseholders of our building have take over with RTM. It’s interesting to see how many dreadful reviews are on this site. I think the conflict of interest with our freeholder, Mr Phil Brotherton being a relative of the director of Harper-Stone is a key issue. We have had an endless set of problems. We had a roof leak which took 2 yrs for Harper-Stone to arrange a repair, and that only after getting the Property Redress Scheme involved. There was no regular drain un-blocking or gutting cleaning carried out. Even after we reported an ingress of water, we had a struggle to get Harper-Stone to arrange gutter cleaning. The house next-door, also ‘managed’ by Harper-Stone has moss growing in their gutters. Recently it took over a week for an urgent sewage blockage to be attended to. Harper-Stone sent a contractor to the wrong address, followed by a contractor who was unable to deal with it. Finally after endless phone calls and promises a contractor who was fit for purpose attended. We are currently in dispute over a number of issues and the freeholder continued to send demands and threats of legal action. We recently started requesting invoices for unspecified maintenance charges which appeared on our accounts. Unfortunately we only have legal redress regarding this issue for the past 6 months. This is just a few of the issues we have experienced.

I don't see how Harper Stone can describe themselves as 'managers' of anything. Until recently I owned a flat in a building 'managed' by them and in purely factual terms they ignore communications (even hand delivered letters) and ignore concerns from residents.
In my opinion they also make unreasonable charges for basic maintenance (c.£50 to change a light bulb), are apparently experiencing extremely high levels of staff churn hence there is no consistency to account management. Their management team is not above bad-mouthing employees to clients if it suits them.
They are a thoroughly substandard management company and I would categorically not buy or rent a property that was managed by Harper Stone. I believe them to be incompetent and unable to manage their financial accounts having received requests for funds that included fees they agreed to waive as a good will gesture for terrible service.
If I could rate them less than a single star rating I would; in my opinion they are simply useless (and expensive). I am glad that the building got together to remove them as managing agents, even if I don’t live there anymore.

Harper stone ignore maintenance and let the building deteriorate and do nothing for the ridiculous service charge.

Over-inflated costs and opaque accounting presentation. Poorly written scopes of work (literally a few vague paragraphs to describe expensive in-depth major works). Staff difficult to get hold of and often rude/stressed when you do speak to them. Property managers change frequently.

Property management is a different world compared to other industries - the high barriers to customer switching means you can still be a profitable business while providing a cynical and low-grade service - but even allowing for the poor standards of the industry as a whole, this is a disappointing experience.

Really positive experience dealing with the team at Harper Stone who have embraced technology with new defect reporting software (FixFlo) and innovative service packages for leaseholders. Great business.

Brown water has been leaking on our sofa in the living room through the fire alarm every time it rains heavily (surprise surprise, we’re in London) for MONTHS. We first reported it in February, it is now June and NOTHING has been done. Several dozens of emails later they are still ‘having meetings’ about it. Whilst we collected 2.5L of water in a pot over our sofa just last night. This is ridiculous. Your customer service is nowhere to be seen. Your company is a fraud and you deserve to go out of business. Avoid any property you see their logo on/around. Nothing will get sorted.

Malicious, fraudulent, incompetent. Worst possible service. Avoid. The amount of staff one has to deal with over a short period of under two years: none of the frontline staff there don’t last for more than a few months - says it all. It’s a racket for enrichment for the two/three “top” staff who while their time until hopefully they’re being investigated for all sorts of misdemeanours.

Nearly all managing agents have a bad name, but i entirely disagree with the below reviews. Our experience with Harper Stone has been professional and amiable. The head of property, harpreet really knows his stuff, and they dealt with a complex leak issue quickly and efficiently keeping me updated throughout. On top of that, we’ve had a fire alarm recently installed along with electrical works to the commonway, and they even gritted our property recently in response to the snow!!! One of the few properties in the street to be gritted. Just because some flat owners dont accept having to pay service charge, that’s not the fault of any agent. These guys are miles better than many other agents I’ve experienced in the town.

When one of their operatives flooded my flat with a jet washer they did attend in force.T was very intimidating. Then they did nothing and sent an email to all, including myself, saying I was not quite right and not to allow me telephone contact. They also said I was not to claim on my own insurance for the damage they caused to my ceilings, lighting, soft furnishings etc. They refused to share the Diamond Electricians safety report with me. I can only assume they have claimed on my behalf and kept my compensation. You can spot a Harper Stone managed property, they are the ones that look like slums.