Sovereign Reviews 266

This should be a no star review.
After 4 years of complaining about bamboo from my neighbours garden, and the promise of putting it right in may 2021! We have heard nothing. Emails and calls NOTHING Iv completed on line complaints Nothing CEO letter and still NOTHING. The fact is if they had sorted it out in 2017 it wouldn't know be coasting 10-20k to put my garden back to its original state. My wife is disabled and yesterday she tripped over yet another new root from on ever growing bamboo. Had to have 8 stitches on my leg and being left with a scar !!
Thanks sovereign.

Once again I’m writing another review about sovereign,first things first after my last rant about sovereign,I’ve had a message but nothing was done(what a supprise ) I’ve complained again to a housing officer who did absolutely nothing,no change there then,but my seizures are getting worse,my medication has been changed and increased so many times,and all the seizures I’ve been having are a result of the cannabis being smoked here.since my last rant I collapsed outside and whilst the medics (who I’ve got nothing but praise for) were helping me recover,one of these neighbours said that it’s a shame I didn’t die!,another neighbour been very nasty and been very abusive about my illness and was disgusting with her treatment of the fact I’ve got epilepsy i complained and nothing done,,my partner has been verbally and physically threatened by one of these neighbours (who literally had to be thrown into her flat by her relative).And when I spoke to sovereign again,they said that mediation was no good but I had to give the names of the people who were doing it?,now I have to live here and they would make my life more hell living here than it is now!.end result sovereign won’t do anything and on a different note I’ve had a toilet that won’t flush for nearly a month now and when I asked (again) for someone to come out was told that it wasn’t an emergency Really what am I supposed to do? Use a bucket and dig a hole outside?..But they still want the rent on time or early…why do I bother writing this ,sovereign won’t do a thing,but once again more seriously I’ve discovered that because it’s a ground floor flat,by our bedroom window some disgusting b****rd has puked his guts up,and (this will sound disgusting..so let me apologise in advance) some nasty person has w***ed outside the flat,on the gas meter box,so I think this enough for Sovereign to get off their backside and do their jobs..But I don’t think they will! So let’s see

Absolutely disgusting customer service, have tried calling them 43 times so far over a period of 13 days, thought I'd finally succeeded 2 days ago when I managed to speak with someone who promised that the person I needed to contact would call me shortly. That was over 48 hours ago.

Having just moved In to a property of sovereign I was looking forward to it. Needless to say I have been so shocked at there lack of care and unhelpful attitude.
If I had known what I know now I wouldn't have taken a property with them. In not even a week they have managed to make my mental health issues so much worse.

I'm so drained with trying to get them to do there job.

The reply from Sovereign Housing Association never materialised. Would be grateful for a reply. Sovereign Housing Association are Tenants with a long lease who are liable to pay Ground Rents every 6 months to the Freeholder , no different to the contract a Tenant signs to stay in one of their Leased flats. They should therefore pay their Ground Rent when that is due the same as they expect the Tenant to pay the Rent when that is due. If you don't speed this up we will go to the press.

Immoral, disgraceful company, DO NOT TRUST THEM.
They took over the responsibility for some properties Spectrum Housing Group built. Spectrum had installed a heat exchange pump incorrectly, and we are now unable to use it.
To fix this, the job would take them half an hour and cost a tenner. Their workmen are in the village all the time, so it wouldn't cost them anything in call out.
They are refusing to fix it, saying it is a grey area and they won't do it. I have been arguing with them since January. Probably cost them more in customer service than it would have done to fix the issue!
They have ignored my formal complaint, illegally.

I put an offer in on an apartment back in February which had no chain and it has taken me until now to ask Sovereign to vary the lease as it is out of date and does not reflect the correct premption terms. For them to come back to me and say "No" with no other valid reason whatsoever. Just an email from their solicitors to say "This is where my client sits, and that's that". I have since heard back from them to say that they have not yet issued a cladding survey and they have no idea when that will be. So it seems I have dodged a whirlwind of what most likely would have been an absolute headache. No wonder Sovereign have such bad reviews. AVOID!!!!!!!!!

I've seen it all now and it doesn't get better.

During 5 years, they've asked for money so quickly they raised my rent 3 times in the space of 3 years. In result of this they do take their time to fix things or don't fix it at all. During pandemic, fridge was broken for 3 weeks and couldn't get it replaced asap. Washing machine broke and that took 2 weeks to replace...

Several of us complained about neighbors using drugs, which they didn't care about. Syringes and numerous cans of beer in the underground garage. Door to the garage is busted, front door was broken and it took them 6 months to fix it, but it wasn't completely fixed because it seemed like they couldn't install a front lock properly and people from the outside can still open it...Back door to communal garden is busted so anyone from outside can enter the property. Automated gate to garage is always broken by not opening and caused everyone to be late for work before pandemic or that it's always open because they think it's easier to fix it that way by letting anyone stroll in.

Finally after moving out, they took forever to get deposit sorted, which I had to wait for 26 days for them! That's not right, because I should've gotten the deposit within 10 days - I've taken the account of keeping the correspondence as evidence. No organisation at all and it was still sent to the wrong person and address.

I couldn't be more frustrated with them, by all means good for tenants staying temporarily or close to town/train station. If you want a good night sleep, make sure you have earplugs, mass amount of mopeds, cars beeping, drunken people hanging around late at night. These windows aren't double glazing! They have not been installed properly and has caused so much condensation in all of the properties! I was told that these would get fixed first year of moving in and that the contractors are from Wales...

I wish I could give this review a Zero, because it has caused me so much stress and worry for my mental health and in my situation I couldn't move out sooner.

Thanks, but no thanks!

This has been an ongoing issue with Sovereign for years. The way the houses are built on the estate is a very poor design.... back gardens back onto back gardens and very close. I have neighbours who have 3 CCTV cameras pointing directly into my bedroom windows and also the kitchen door window, which allows them watch my every move, plus these cameras are positioned on my driveway, so these tenants can watch when I leave my property and return - I have asked Sovereign to look into this and they are not interested into protecting me, they just ignore me. They are quick enough to take the rent, but they WONT do anything - if anyone is thinking of purchasing a shared ownership property through them, I would sersiouly think again, as they don't understand what their actions are doing to people, when they are crying out for them.

Dreadful housing association, do not rent from this shower of sh**
They don’t care anything about the tenants only interested in the rent, minimum repairs and as for complaints don’t even bother with that as they are not going to do anything about it, they let their properties to people without doing proper background checks
Any ASB is ignored, drug dealing and taking is ignored, sovereign do not care about anyone!!!
Shameful people
I’m not a tenant with you anymore thank god, so I won’t be replying to your DM

We purchased a shared ownership property through Sovereign. The whole process was as hassle free as possible. Andrew answered all questions we had in depth, and kept us regularly up to date with the progress of the house. even after moving in, he has gone out of his way to help us resolve any minor issues we've had. 1 month in and so far, we're very happy!

My family and I moved into a new build last Summer, 2020. From the get-go I knew I had made a mistake. The people next door (also Sovereign tenants) were noisy, slammed doors up to 30 times a day vibrating floors and walls, had constantly yapping dogs, daily tantrums by noisy children that were never disciplined and had several visitors throughout the day and night every day breaching COVID regulations and lockdown rules and were generally narcissistic and disrespectful of anyone else. They even put CCTV cameras up (breaking privacy LAW which I hired a Solicitor to help sort out). What did Sovereign do about any of this..............nothing. From the start of the tenancy, the agreement we signed said that no permanent changes were to be made to the property during the first year, giving the house plenty of time to settle. The people next door ripped out the newly laid patio and installed a larger 'cheaper' looking monstrosity, removed kitchen cupboards leaving them outside, drilled into walls, failed to keep the garden up together and when the sun came out and warmed up the grass, the smell of dog urine and faecal matter was stomach-churning. What did Sovereign do............nothing. Moreover, all complaints I made were ignored. I was told to keep a noise diary and to download a noise recording APP. This is pointless if you don't know when the noise is going to occur. No one ever asked to see the diary either apart from my Solicitor, the Community Support Officer, and Environmental Health, BUT NOT THE LANDLORD!! They know people are in housing need so they treat us like second rate citizens. To them, we are the lowest of the low. The checks they allegedly do at the start of a tenancy are a joke as well. I have it on good authority that the estate we left had a growing drugs problem due to Sovereign tenants who had just moved in. Apart from a few Sovereign call centre staff and the workmen all of whom were polite, respectful and good at their job, the main drive of this company is money. They claim to be Mental Health First Aiders on their website. This is utter nonsense. They didn't care about our mental health when they refused to act concerning the neighbours and their 24 hour a day noise and antics. All they are motivated by is money. We were quite literally driven out just eight months later, but personally, we were relieved to get away from the neighbours and the estate from hell and to leave this farce of a company behind. Who wants to rent from a company that writes and prepares a tenancy agreement and then blatantly ignores it?

Extremely rude staff, would highly recommend avoiding

Terrible housing assosiation do not care about their tenants but only about the money and rent they demand you still owe they constantly send you eviction notices within 1 week of rent overdue and even during covid 19 when alot of people lost their income and became homeless rather than owe them rent they still chase and try claim moneyback when u didnt even live there disgusting inhumane company!!!!

Really didn't want to write a review but I feel I must, to warn any other vulnerable families sovereign housing are the worst landlord, good workmen are few and far between, I actually feel for the qualified workmen that actually do a genuine good job that have to go behind and redo work that is just botched from other cowboys employed, bath waste pipe, electrics, boilers you name it, things don't get fixed even after the housing officers have been out and seen for themselves, all false hope and reassurance it will be fixed whilst looking down there noses at you assuming you don't even work so of course everything is paid for you, errr hello get with reality most of us actually do work and no not everything is paid for us, infact we receive very little help, then the letters sent out that cause worry when you have actually not broken any agreement, my neighbour was actually threatened with court action over £23 which they paid as soon as they realised but were still sent out a letter, the amount paid to live in these houses that are literally falling apart and with housing officers that have no empathy or social interaction skills, mention sovereign housing to anyone they quote worst housing association ever. Perhaps dont assume all tenants don't work and then go on about bedroom taxes that actually we don't have to pay because guess what we work, fix things for a change and don't send out cowboys that do a botch up job that needs doing again a few weeks later, up date your payment system so its not so slow in clearing payments I could go on, times are hard currently and some of us don't have the outright option to get out, if you do ever have the choice don't go with sovereign watchdog would have an absolute field day with these guys.
Angry tenant.

5 months Rubble left in Recycle bin.

been there 5 months, and rubble left from the builders (who destroyed the previous tenant's sheds, has been left in the recycle bin). so have been unable to use, and now a mountain of cardboard is forming.

why is this housing association allowing this to continue?? MULTIPLE COMPLAINTS. NO ACTION.

Michelle if you are reading this. Please Call the Tenant today. We can finally resolve this, so my kids are not living in the junk yard scene from Labyrinth.

UPDATE:
thank you for response, lets put an end to this sorry saga with a gesture of good will. please take the excess cardboard and paint the front fence. so we can close the page on this with at least something to smile about.

my Previous reviews are below: Pathetic Response.

3 stars: Average
Updated 10 Mar 2021
No hot water for 4 months!!
No hot water for 4 months!!!
Still can't use recycle bin, as their builders left rubble in it.
They just ignore complaints and take your rent.
This company is a complete disgrace.
Where is their duty of care for their tenants. No moral compass, they don't give a dam.

Happy to let their tenants freeze in cold water. Africa has better housing...

Even a 0 would be generous.

1 star: Bad
Updated 9 Mar 2021
Very poor
Very poor. Not had heated water for 3.months since moved in (still not fixed) . Builders left rubble in recycle bin before we moved in so unable to use.

Extremely poor. Do not recommend.

Never made contact to sort anything out. They just don't care. Even a 1 is far too high.

Forced to list as one star but I actually give you minus 10.

My experience of being a Sovereign housing tenant:

1. Drug addict next door terrorised myself and my family for two years and Sovereign told me I was being oversensitive. Put me out of work, made me suicidal. It was a close thing. No apology ever for that. They only agreed to evict the tenant when the Police put pressure on them due to the excess violence, etc. Even environmental health, who came out due to my numerous noise complaints, had to remain in my house one night for over an hour until the police arrived because they were too worried to leave with the chaos that my neighbour and mates were causing!

2.New neighbour 'sensitive let' destroyed plants in my garden, makes noise and wakes me up. Noise at times as bad as drugy neighbour. Asked for mediation, mediator useless, Sovereign refused to agree with me on that point insisting she was a professional ha! (No doubt as long as she was cheap so satisfactory). Further mediation refused by Sovereign as I was told I was seriously derogatory about my neighbour after, in an email, I said she had 'low standards' thats very polite compared to what I really think! After she willfully destroyed my garden, forced me out of work on numerous occasions due to being woken up at night, etc. Sovereign refuse to do anything and deem me a trouble causer.

3. Weeds in parking area owned by Sovereign have been taken away ONCE in the five years I've lived here. Looks disgusting. Rubbish all over the place, etc. Nevermind about my neighbour, Sovereign have no standards either.

4. No prior notice to gasman turning up for an annual check 3 months before it was due AND during lockdown! They really look after your welfare! I don't appreciate being put at risk unnecessarily, especially as they refused to repair my roof due to 'covid' reasons. I have a loose tile and they said 'sorry we can't fix that currently as we are only doing emergency or external repairs'. Funny as I always thought my roof was on the outside. For over a year I can't open one of my bedroom windows, I have a shower that runs icy cold ten minutes in and my kitchen units have been installed so my cooker hob is lower than my worktops, making it very difficult possibly dangerous to cook on the hobs. Will they fix these problems? No. Even when they go send handymen to fix things they usually don't remedy the problem, for example exterior cover to electric box door fell off, 2 weeks later it fell off again...

..
5. Quick enough to send you a heavy duty threatening letter when you are one day late with your rent but ignore you the rest of the time.

Sovereign really don't give a stuff about their tenants or their situations. They are supposed to involve residents in estate checks etc, but I've never been asked. Maybe that's because they think I'm a trouble causer and they are worried I'll make a few other suggestions they would prefer to ignore.

If someone suggests becoming a Sovereign tenant run the other way!

UPDATE 14.05.2021: Sovereign Housing’s answer to this review was to offer me the opportunity of an estate inspection. That’s it. What would be the point? Every time I mention rubbish in the area for instance, I get the same reply - ‘I didn’t see any on my inspection’. Oh and apparently the weeds aren’t big enough to deal with! (3ft).

What the $%#% seriously let's make this clear and simple 1st its against the law to leave a fire door / security door open or put on the latch. Having problems with my middle neighbor leading it open on purpose.
So this so called man Derome or Jerome calls me being very derogative on the phone when he has no information on the details so after almost 1hr I was like no you can't speak to me like this and hung up called to speak to his manager the next day and got Simon Grey who was like oh he is not normally like that and I was like I don't care Jerome can't ever speak to me again I need another person to take the case on he Simon said no he is going to do it I said no I'm making a complaint about Jerome I can't speak to him. So after I call the OMBUDSMAN who sent them an email saying that Jerome can't contact me and that another person needs to take the case on but if he is the only one as there stating then he can only use EMAIL and Email only to contact me. So I hear a knock at my door and it's Jerome I was shocked as he has been told 4 times by phone call he is not allowed to speak to me or contact me so why the #$% is he at my house knocking on my door.
The matter of the fact is if someone is told to leave a person alone don't speak to them don't call them just use email if you have to but they think its ok to drive here and come to my front door wow

If I rate 0 I would, awful customer care have a leak in the roof and a leak in the bathroom and being fobbed off because of covid. Yet they are allowed to send round gas men but couldn't possibly fix two leaks in the current climate!!!! Water stains on ceiling from bathroom leak and everything in our loft is moldy!!! Awful and our rent has gone up AGAIN yet nothing gets fixed!!!!!

Excellent service from Sovereign Housing
Came out same day.
A big thank you to Charlee Caddick for arranging 5 Star service *****