Mainstay Group Reviews 

For 5 years we are calling for parking bays to be marked as it's impossible to see the lines in the night and mark them with the bay numbers as it should be allocated parking but the bay numbers disappeared (tiny plastic discs ...). 5 years ! they will charge us for it ... yet nothing ! nothing had been done yet. For 3 years we had issues with water pumps that were being patched instead of fixed and those patches constantly charged to us. Now major water leak had been left nearly 3 weeks despite being reported and only after a councilor got involved something had moved (albeit still very slowly) and we MAY get someone on site today to fix it (doubt it as they will have to dig up the road that had partly collapsed now due to the water. Absolute shambles, no management available to talk to us ever, even the councilor had no luck to lure them from under the stone. But they are very quick to take our money for service we have NEVER received.

What an absolutely appalling company. I really feel for anyone who has to use them for property management. The only thing they manage for us is ground rent, but they can't even do that. I have been waiting for over a month for a £350 refund for monies they took in error. I've been passed from department to department, all of which ends with a sorry, the person you need is not here. Absolutely disgraceful - avoid like the plague.

Good luck trying to move out - takes over a month for them to answer queries from my solicitor! The fact that there are still queries after I had to pay £200 for mainstay to generate an information pack tells you the quality of that information! Avoid.

Water started coming in to my 8 year old flat over a year ago causing mold damp etc. I have to run a dehumidifier (fit for a house in a one bed flat). A year after reporting what I thought was a serious issue - nothing. No service standards, complaints procedure calls not returned. Obviously they have built there service standards to reflect a captive market who cannot easily move on.

Another shocker of an experience with mainstay. Trying to get a replacement fob sorted out as I lost my keys, and no one in the management office nor at head office could provide an answer or any information. Am fed up with the incredibly poor lack of customer service at mainstay. Clearly only looking out for themselves.

Appalling customer service. We've been trying for more than 2 months to get a management pack from Mainstay in order to complete the sale of the property. Our solicitor has chased and chased for it, we have chased and we get the same unhelpful person telling us it's been escalated but absolutely nothing has been done. No chance of it materialising currently and it's seriously compromising the sale. It is the only thing we are waiting on. I can't believe the absolute lack of customer service, they've been bad enough managing the houses and this is the final straw. Avoid at all costs. Not even a decent explantation or any way to speak to the right person just one person telling us it's been escalated and there's no email we can contact and there's nobody else we can speak to.

Mainstay have presided over failed, delayed and mismanaged building works at Marsh House in Bristol for 4.5 years .

It took them and their representatives, Warwick Estates (who must represent the worst level of customer services this sector offer) just over 3 years to arrange for the replacement of balcony balustrades and decking.

Since the scaffolding finally went up in June 2020 on a 12 week program, the work has continually stopped/ started and still remains uncompleted 68 weeks later

CostS are running at £4k per week and no one has provided updates/ resolutions to the latest problem for some 6 weeks now.

It is wholly unacceptable to expect leaseholders to foot these bills for weeks/months of inactivity.

Why is it that leaseholders are expected to accept such incompetence on a grand scale?

This company took over the management of our residential complex a month ago. During this short period, two loyal experienced members of staff resigned due to the bad management. They turned the common area into a delivery room and removed the visitor seats. Our parcel is exposed to the public and is not safe. Data protection is not respected. Residents should walk around to find their parcels on the floor. No matter how the concierge team trying to help, the entrance is messy and brutal.
Avoid this company and don't sign a contract.

Worst property management company to exist in UK probably. Pity on all the house owners who have to deal with them. They should b thankful to trustpilot where they can get 1 star at best. They should not exist in this business.

They'll be the first to ask for cash or send out a letter for something that doesn't even apply to us, but upholding their end of the contract and keeping things fixed - you don't get anywhere without pushing and pushing for weeks. People should own housing and not rent - if not for many obvious other reasons - just to avoid other people's incompetence!

Avoid mainstay, not worth it until they decide to shape up.

I'm on the last leg of selling my shared ownership property. But I can't because this incompetent company won't supply the information I have asked for. They've taken my money, and not supplied the Management Pack for the seller. This is the final piece I require.

My agent, solicitors and I have called them numerous times to chase, its been a whole month of chasing, and I still have not received anything. When I've called they've told me there's lack of workers, I can't make a complaint, I can't be transferred to a manager and I'm basically blocked from getting any further information on the work I have paid them for.

If their inability to complete the task they've been paid to do causes me to lose the sale of my property, I will take them to a tribunal. This is unacceptable and obviously a systemic problem with this scumbag company.

My solicitor has been waiting over 3 weeks for a response for some queries on my house sale.
I have also emailed Mainstay/first port three times with no response and called several times a week and Tmy number has been taken and call back promised to no avail and third time asked to be put through to complaints but apparently you can't transfer people or give our a number for complaints.
Your lack of response is going to cause me to lose my house sale and purchase. Would not recommend anyone purchase a property managed by FirstPort or Mainstay disgusting company.

This is a totally chaotic company and shouldn't even be trading. They ignore all requests unless it is to extract money from you.

My situation is they are the account manager of a block of flats I live in and cannot sell because they
will not provide basic legal information about the property. Despite requests by two legal teams and
estate agents and myself over 4 weeks there's been
no reply. The associate director ALEX SIEGLE is
total disgrace and should be shamed.

But that's not the worst. They are now taken over
by another outfit 'Firstport' who have an even worse
Truspilot review - 64 % bad.

I can't sell my property while these crooks extract £500 per quarter on mgmt fees on an empty property.

Not sure I would even give you 1 star but oh well, here goes!

Hello Mainstay,

Please can I raise the email sent over 1 week ago now as a complaint.

I request for someone to call me to discuss a consent dog form for our buyers small dog and service Budget information (Which should have been sent correctly to my solicitor over 6-8 weeks ago). We purchased the FULL resales pack at £350 via our solicitor and you have failed to send her the correct information in the first place and failed to respond to emails in a timely manner. As a result, Mainstay has now delayed our exchange and completion of the apartment and now cost our buyers a lot of money now having to pay stamp duty and our exchange and now completion a delay on our new property.

I am thoroughly disappointed with Mainstays customer service, your call centre team have not been any help or clearly passed on messages for someone to call or contact regarding the outstanding enquiries. Furthermore, other team members have failed to provide a service in responding to our Solicitor and our Buyers Solicitor with a simple company procedure of response times now exceeding 3 weeks from the first communication.

I expect this complaint to be raised and dealt with in a timely manner.

Kindest Regards,

Natasha
- if you check your emails you'll find my email and contact number.

I have resided at St Peters walk for over a decade and spent most of this time as a Director. Although it can be challenging to balance with my day to day activities, what makes it possible and rewarding is the close relationship I share with the Area Property Manager and her Manager, the Associate Director, Peter Whalley. We have forged such a close relationship that I have direct contact with him whenever I have any issues and the need to contact him directly should arise. I trust that he will see to my queries personally and efficiently and he has reassured me that I can bypass other staff if I need something sorting urgently and has never let me down on this. Such is the unique relationship that we have come to know and enjoy, therefore I can't find anything negative to stay about mainstay.

I have worked closely with the Area Property Manager and her lovely assistant to deliver competitive quotes on the budget saving the leaseholders money and reducing the budget for this year for the first time ever! That was a great feat and source of satisfaction for us.

We have regular meetings to discuss issues on site and ways we can save money to deliver a competitive service, which is something I am very passionate about. I have always found my dealings with Mainstay staff to be pleasant and we have great communication.

We also work together and with other residents to reduce flytipping incidents and have an effective reporting system ensuring that the development remains a nice environment to live in for all residents and leaseholders alike.

Three weeks after reporting a wasps nest entering the building through a gap in the brickwork, nothing from Mainstay. I called up and although the issue had been recorded on the Mainstay system, absolutely no action had been taken. I was stung this morning. Very painful. Let's see how long it now takes to get the situation resolved.

Melanie Barker who is the property manager for Fulford place in York has always been excellent and proffessional in my view .
Melanie is always contactable even late in the day, is very knowledgeable ,with the other properties she manages and is a very nice person to deal with.
Melanie has just helped me recently with another issue and again she just " gets the job done "which is what we want.
All in all a great experience

Hi All

This is the worse company i dealt with and customer service is terrible .
Talk to 2 reps both of them was very rude, loud and trying to dominate the conversation , keep repeating themselves and unprofessional .

Think and investigate before using this company services .

Just completed a rather difficult house sale. Our purchasers continued to raise queries and request documentation for fun. After continuous phone calls ( all unanswered ) and several emails ( Again all unanswered ) I somehow stumbled across Melanie Baker. Not her department, and no reason to help, Melanie was brilliant. She pressured internal departments and continually got me the information I needed. What customer service she provided … A breath of fresh air. Whatever you pay her, it isn’t enough. Thanks Melanie, very much appreciated. Mainstay are very fortunate to have you in their team.

I have had the displeasure of having Mainstay as the management company for the past 5 years.

Be prepared for next to zero customer service despite their extortionate fees. The only way you'll ever get correspondence is if you don't pay on time or someone parks in the wrong spot.

The time has now come to sell my property and I risk losing my onward purchase due to Mainstays incompetence. They simply do not respond to enquiries despite daily attempts. It has now been over 3 weeks of constant attempts from myself, my partner and my solicitor and not a single reply.
If on the rare occasion you get through to speak with someone via their phone lines, the only response you get is "I'll have to forward your query to resales". I'm pretty sure resales is a made up department as I'm yet to hear anything back.

I swear that I will NEVER be purchasing a property managed by Mainstay again, and I will do my best to ensure none of my friends or family have the displeasure of it either.