Catalyst Housing Limited Reviews 265

Excellent

Electricians arrived on time. Identified fault with light then replaced parts. Job done to perfection.

Where is the zero star option?

The worst customer service experience I’ve ever experienced with any company that I’m supposed to be paying for services for??

An ongoing problem which should have been resolved months before now: A simple communal area that is supposed to be shared responsibility between a party of 8 separate houses, except it seems to be me paying all the maintenance/service charges…

Still 15 months In with regards to the original dispute being made…You’re talking a few extra pounds per month that I’m being billed ( incorrectly ) , that is now festering into £100’s with very little communication for all involved and I’m still chasing any updates on a weekly basis!

Do not ever purchase a shared ownership from this company. Customer service - Zero
Returned E-mails -1 in about 10
Problem resolved after 15 months … No where near…

Pathetic, can’t wait to get rid of my share of this property even though I love the house myself. Catalyst have absolutely ruined this experience however.

Ombudsman stage 3 complaint incoming tomorrow now.

Tragically bad service! How is it that government doesn't intervene with such poorly operated housing associations. We had someone dumping some old truck on our driveway, blocking parking spaces and access to the whole estate. The vehicle is untaxed and has been here for a month, evidently abandoned. We called the council and they said this is a private road and they cannot remove it, asked us to call Catalyst as it is their responsibility. We did 2 weeks ago! we have been told that the estates services with tow it away in next few days, as this is treated as urgent. Nothing has been done. I called them today after 45min on hold I have been told by a customer service representative that they tried to track who the truck belongs to and it turned out it is a company not an individual, so they asked them to remove the truck. Obviously as the vehicle is untaxed and abandoned they will never do that and we will have to take Catalyst to court to get any action from them. If there was a fire in any of the houses, the fire engine would not be able to go through, and then this will be a criminal negligence and this will serve as a proof of all the reports and emails we sent to them and they did nothing!

My brother was found dead in one of their apartments. No response to numerous phone calls from my sister when we were in London to start house clearance. We informed Catalyst by email that we would return in September to finish clearing our brother's possessions (I live in Portugal and my sister in Scotland). After more unanswered calls my sister eventually received an email stating that the house had to be cleared by August 7, otherwise they would break in and clear the property themselves. They stated that they had the right to do so as this was stated in the lease. We have asked for a copy but this has not been forthcoming. Eventually my sister was contacted by Catalyst's Neighbourhood Officer who stated that she had been told nothing of our brother's death. My sister has been greatly inconvenienced in having to arrange with a Storage Unit to have the house cleared and the property put into storage until we return in September. I have sent another email to Catalyst telling them that their services need vast improvement but like so many other complaints to them, I doubt if they will even bother to read it. EXTREMELY POOR.

Well for years I have suffered my neighbour either smashing my fencing down, kids jumping on my fence, constant intimidation, harassment and cctv camera over both my both and back garden whim I’m sitting in the garden! Nothing is done about it - police won’t get involved neither as they blame the HA - I’m sick of it that I have no privacy and out of pocket from having to repair/renew my fence. It’s criminal damage also which is never addressed !

Thanks for your reply but yet again false promises as even when someone calls nothing happens or they put the phone down on me when I question them !

EDIT 16/08/2022
Catalyst still haven't gotten back to me besides a vague email saying sorry for not getting back to me. I literally just wanted them to forward our request to Fairview, it would have been the same amount of effort. Considering our contract is with catalyst and they still own part of the flat, you'd think they would take more of an interest in the extensive water damage that has occurred!

We've unfortunately had some flooding in our shared ownership property and catalyst have been less than helpful. Whilst the people I have talked to on the phone have been sympathetic they haven't actually done anything. We were told an emergency contractor would be sent within 24 hours. This was 2 weeks ago and whilst Fairview did send someone out when we called them directly, we never had anyone associated with catalyst come (I was told these would be separate people when I asked about it on the phone). We were also told the neighborhood experience manager would pop in because she was in the area the day after the flood but she never did (I believe this is the same person who I was never able to get in touch with that I mentioned in my previous review so it's not very surprising). Finally, we were told by Fairview that for anything further than what was initially discussed we had to go through catalyst but that is turning out to be near impossible - whenever we need anything from anyone that person is mysteriously on leave!

They are the worse and most abusive landlord and social housing, I have sued them in court and the case is ongoing, watch out people because they use all sorts of unethical tricks to get rid of your case including coming up with a bogus and fake eviction to deter me from pursuing my case!!! They will soon be exposed but people need to get together to stop their abuse.

Six months to sort out my service charge and being ripped off until i flagged it they said oh we are sorry we been over charging you. I have emailed in excess of 40 times and called over 30+ times honestly waste of time they dont care rip customers off and send threatning letters stop littering or we will increase your service charge. The service is disgusting never exp anything like this in my life. Staff are an absolute joke like your dealing with clowns who have no care to
Help residents suprisngly when i was purchasing the house emailing me themselves everyday. The complaints team is absolutely useless send templated responses and on the phone they will
Just ang up on you. The other day i called the advisor had music playing in the background so professional!

I have been a homeowner with Catalyst for 3 years and I am currently trying to sell my property as I am relocating for work. Due to my property being shared ownership, Catalyst have 8 weeks to try to sell my property themselves before I can take it to the open market. I was assigned a case handler 3 weeks ago and have yet to hear anything, I've had to chase more times than I can count and still cannot get hold of my specific case handler. I'm in a high pressure situation as I need to move in a few months time and my flat is still not on the market. As each day goes by the stress and frustration keeps mounting as I'm left emailing and calling the same people and hitting the same dead ends. Catalyst have left me feeling trapped as their lack of competency and communication has put me in a really stressful situation that I can't get out of. Had I been dealing with an estate agent, my flat would've already been on the market for nearly a month and may have already sold for all I know. I genuinely cannot get my head around how they can get away with treating their customers like this, the communication has been non-existent. What do I have to do to get the bare minimum from your team?!

This is the worst housing association in the world. After 1 year I paid back fully the help to buy loan, they kept send me letter showing that I own them ££££. And although I pay the service charge and ground rent every month, they keep sending me the letter asking me to pay yearly ground rent.
Will they change their name from Catalyst housing to blackmail housing?

Extremely bad. They use horrible materials and everything breaks down easily. Had lift and boiler breaking down on the same day. They take at least 47 hrs to fix.

Flat was flooded last week Monday.. was told some one will give call back last week about alternative accommodation.
I’m unable to live in a flat with no electricity.the damp smell is bad for me
I have health issues respiratory issues..
Need alternative accommodation as I’m unable to stay here .every day I phone catalyst housing I’m told someone will call me back at this time and nothing. Leak from flat above has not been fixed
Water still dripping through ceiling ..no electricity .what is going on.

Catalyst housing are incompetent and don't want to fix problems. It is a mistake to buy a home from them, they take no responsibility and pass you around people for months. We had had a leaking roof for over a year, mould growth, damp, damage throughout the property and its still not fixed.

Room has been flooded from above.
Was told Id receive call back last week.
Damp smell very bad.unable to stay in flat due to my health problem and respiratory issues.does not seem to be taken seriously.I have have phoned catalyst housing more Than 6 occasions.spoke to management staff outside office and was told id receive a call back .still have not had call back.

I have been in a shared ownership property since 1993 - Catalyst are now the company involved. In the beginning of my contact with the original company, Ealing Family Housing, the customer service was good & I could visit the local office.
Since Catalyst have been involved I cannot visit the local offices to discuss any issues and I have been trying to resolve an issue with Catalyst since February 2022. The local person for Catalyst contacted me once, said she couldn’t resolve the issue until she had found out more information. Since then I have had two other Catalyst reps contact me via email on 11th & 22nd April 2022 but still have had no further contact or resolution to my issue.
If I could buy the other half of my property I would so that I don’t have to deal with Catalyst any more. I always pay my rent on time - if I stopped paying I suspect Catalyst would be in contact straight away!

It's a shame you cannot select zero star's.
From waiting times to contact, to being cut off as soon as someone finally answers.
From booking a repair to nobody turning up for the job only to be told there's no booking even though you have a reference number.
Should we talk about updating records, let's not as they ignore all updates. Send it by post, by email, or over the phone. It never gets updated.
Catalyst is a shocking company. The best one I had was the misfortune of dealing with a housing officer with no compassion what so ever.
My mother had past away and myself along with my brother were trying to sort things out. We fell behind on the rent but had worked out everything we needed to be able to pay. Speaking to this officer to try and have the tenancy passed over and with no care about affordability told us the older brother had to take the main Tennant role. He was not working at the time and told us if he didn't we'd be kicked out.
Classy work from these lot.

I've been in a Catalyst house for nearly 7 months I'm just so fed up .
Service charge increased from £1 per week to £12 per week in April . I asked for information as to why and have been ignored .
I've tried to contact my housing officer several times for other reasons but they never ring back . I don't even know who they are as customer services aren't allowed to give me their contact details .
I'm just trying to move to get into a house with a decent housing association now . We wish we had never downsized to free up a larger property for a family in need.

Well this got me a response ! My housing officer called me , he was very helpful and I now have both a phone number and email address to contact him in future . Thank you !

After waiting 5-6 weeks for my toilet to be repaired I had a visit from a female plumber; Shai
Shai was professional, experienced and friendly and a pleasure to have in my house.
Shai ensured that the job was completed to high satisfaction and cleaned all areas that she’d worked in before leaving my house.
CHG need more employees like Shai who give an excellent service and gives hope to others who have received a poor service.
Thank you.

If I could go back in time, I would NEVER have gone with catalyst. We bought our house in 2019 and we’ve had issue after issue ever since. When we first moved, the floors were damaged, the windows were cracked, the bath was cracked, the windowsills were cracked, the paint work was dirty, the boiler had no pipe cover, the toilet was leaking, the floor boards were loose/poorly fitted, bubbles on ceiling, cabinets wonky/not flush, missing radiator parts meant the radiator didn’t work (bear in mind we moved in December), the silicone round the oven melted, shower hose leaked, base boards in kitchen were damaged, leaks it front and back door, internal doors not shutting/getting stuck, our garden constantly floods with the water draining TOWARDS the house.. just to name a few issues. A big issue for us was that the pipes in the floor upstairs were installed incorrectly causing a continuous banging noise which everyone at catalyst kept dismissing, despite me sending countless videos of the issue. It caused my partner and I to loose sleep, which had knock on effects to our physical and mental health, It wasn’t until July 2021 that they finally fixed it. Our extractor fan also was installed incorrectly, meaning that the steam from the bathroom was going directly into the loft (because someone designed the bathroom with no window which is another complaint) due to moisture being trapped in the loft, we had BLACK MOULD growing on the supports and sheets in the loft, my partner and I were both constantly feeling under the weather and we feel it was due to the aspiration of the mould spores which are bad for your health. The team are nearly all uncontactable, I’ve been hung up on. I’ve had appointments booked for repairs and no one shows up. I’ve lost god knows how much money taking time off work UNpaid for the tradesmen not to show up. Buying a house with your partner should be a happy and enjoyable experience, starting a new chapter, relaxed, enjoying your new home. But we have had nightmare after nightmare with Catalyst. The house has been a nightmare and we often regret buying it in the first place and as soon as we can afford to move, we will be. We regret wasting our HARD EARNED money on this house. We bought the house when we were 21 and 22 years old, it took years of saving and we had to move to our own place for personal reasons and the whole situation has been dreadful. Catalyst really ruined what should’ve been a happy time for us. we don’t love our home, instead we just look forward to a time we can afford to leave. How sad is that? Your first home should be a prize, it should be an accomplishment. But no. Our first home is just a massive disappointment.

You responded to say I would hear from someone within 48 hours. I haven’t heard anything from anyone. Why am I not surprised.

I have never been more disgusted. I own my home and catalyst brought the house next door. The fence blew down in February and still not put put back up and god knows how many days I’ve wasted calling catalyst and getting no where so I made an online complaint which no body got back to me on. Come out fix your fence you disgusting people.