Catalyst Housing Limited Reviews 265

The lady that has been helping me at through a financial crisis at the moment has been fantastic and very understanding to me which I am very much appreciate thank you sonal

I live in a shared equity flat which as been taken over by Catalyst. I'm sorry to say l can't find anything good to say about them.
We've just had a massive, eye popping monthly hike in our service charges yet there is nothing at all to show for our money. Our Close is so scruffy, the care-taking is none existent, stairways and paths are not cleaned, gardens are not attended to, so, we wonder what they do with our money. One "care-taker" comes all the way from London and sits in his van for most of his time here. What is the point! And he's paid??? As we pay the office staff in our rent, we'd like to know where they are as we rarely see them. When we do, it's nods of heads, yes we'll see to it, then nothing is done.

Residents send in emails of complaint, along with photos of areas full of leaves and cobwebs, none of which are answered. I got so fed up l emailed the chief exec, but not a word from him either. What's the matter with them? Such bad manners from the whole lot of them!
The service we are given is so poor, they have been the worst society who have taken over us and it's shocking! We are considering going to the Ombudsman to make our complaint in the hope the society will be galvanised into some sort of action. When you read their beautifully scripted magazine, it's so full of promises you'd think they are the best. Well, l have news for you, they ain't!
Moving is an impossibility so stuck l am. This Close used to be envied by local people as it was always so clean and tidy. I wish l could say the same now, some years later but unfortunately l can't. I can live in hope they will get their act together some day soon.

I have had an overwhelming amount of support from catalyst housing, they have been amazing with all kinds of issues I've have experienced not only in regards to housing and repairs. I can't thank them enough for the time, effort, and kindness they have shown to over the two years. although its taken time with certain repairs and with COVID-19 which stopped repairs happening for a while, the team is now working hard to catch up and finish jobs that have been reported. when the going gets tough, the catalyst housing team was amazing to me and I can't thank them enough.

The staff have been brilliant at helping me with rent issues and benefits advice. I cannot praise them enough.

After several failed attempts to have Catalyst make the necessary works and actions to one of its properties in Ealing I feel it important to add my voice to the long list of complainants on this site. It would seem that finances take preference over tenants and neighbors concerns/well being.

Worst Housing Association EVER! They don't care about their tenants. Happy to take money but they don't their buildings, they don't complete repairs. They actually damage stuff and refuse to come back to fix issues.

AVOID THEM

an atrocious organisation. never do repairs you need and are always sending people to annoy you and break things that worked and replace with non working things you did not ask for. only time other than that they get in touch is to threaten you.

Where to start, we’ve owned a Catalyst property for 10 years and I’ve never once known them to address a problem with anything approaching even the slightest level of professionalism.
They are a big organisation, with a myriad of departments none of which seems to take responsibility for anything.
Any request for repairs take several communications until they are even acknowledged and then are met with empty promises and unmet deadlines.
Their entire MO seems to be to wear down home owners until they just give up.
After several requests over a period of months to get a lamp on the communal path repaired, Catalyst finally told me that they had arranged for a contractor to attend. After several no shows, I finally got told that the contractor had resolved the issue only to discover that nothing was done. Eventually, another owner fixed the problem himself and that was just a replacement light bulb.
The lock on the communal front door was replaced with one that you could open from the outside. I explained to Catalyst why that wouldn't work and they then replaced it with a lock that was too small. The holes that were left in the door by the bigger, original lock, were filled with silicone. I called Catalyst and told them that it looked terrible and was told, 'Well, it'll do the job.' A fence that has been rotting away for years to the point that it is now on the verge of falling over was recently 'repaired' with electrical tape.
Last year a survey was conducted an the cladding of the building to see if it is compliant with fire regulations and we have still not been given the results of that survey.
Service charges have gone up and the service has gone from bad to practically nonexistent.
Please, whatever you do, don’t get involved with Catalyst, they are an absolute nightmare.
My only hope is that enough people read these reviews and stay away from them to the point where they realise that they can’t continue to operate this way with impunity.

My experience with Catalyst has been nothing but displeasing over the past 18 months.
From unaddressed complaints regarding noise, litter, vandalism and security threats requiring CCTV footage, Catalyst have proved themselves to be extremely inept at handling complaints or taking tenants’ concerns seriously.
I would like to see how my monthly service charge payments are being utilised as so far none of the pressing issues I’ve addressed over the last 18 months have been addressed.
I’m extremely disappointed in the level of service delivered by Catalyst.

Avoid moving into a Catalyst property!
If you have a choice, do not live in a property owned or managed by Catalyst.
Every problem requires several requests for action before you even get an acknowledgement. Nothing is ever done, The only thing Catalyst is good at, is the meaningless "apology for the delay". My inbox is full of those.
It took months to get a failed communal valve replaced which rendered our property almost unlivable. You have to threaten to do works yourself and charge them back to Catalyst to see even a vague attempt at action. They fail to provide critical information to leaseholders which makes remortgaging or selling all but impossible so you are trapped in the property.
In addition, your property could be at fire risk because of cladding issues (memories of Grenfell!) but several months of begging, threatening and writing to local MPs to obtain information about the risk to our property following a survey conducted LAST YEAR, still no answers from what has got to be the worst property manager in England.
Every ounce of pleasure in finally owning my own home has been taken away by this shambles of an organisation who promise the world, but deliver nothing.
Avoid like the plague.
UPDATE: Catalyst responded to my review on the day I left it and asked me to email them to discuss the problem. I have been emailing for weeks with no answers. As usual, they are just going through the motions to tick the boxes and make it look like they are doing something.

Disgusted at the customer service for catalyst. Called three times about an issue I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of and NO ONE HAS GOT BACK TO ME ALTHOUGH THEY PROMISED! My service charge has gone up twice and i’ve been here less than a year and yet the customer service keeps getting worse and worse. For the amount of rent and service charge i pay, I CANNOT believe i’m continuously being ignored and disregarded! Disgusting!

Unbelievably poor! There are too many issues to list but the final nail came today!
Our bathroom toilet has been fitted too close to a wall so you have to sit at an agle to use it. On their OWN snags list it states 'toilet too close to the wall'. They have refused to move the toilet to a useable position - we were not allowed entry to the property prior to completion, a neighbour three doors down was allowed a visit, had the same issue and they are repairing his as rightly he wouldn't move in to a home with an unusable toilet. I fully intend to share more of our experiences but in the mean time do not trust this company and do not agree to purchase without a thorough inspection of the property beforehand! In fact if at all possible do not purchase from Catalyst at all!

If I could put zero stars I would!
Lived in my property for a year and honestly I have never dealt with a more rude, bullying, horrible, lying incompetent housing association!!
All they care about is money, I am currently in a Refuge with my daughter after leaving a domestic violence relationship and spoke to ' a housing officer' regarding this and was told to my HORROR " Why did you leave your home? There are no police reports from the past year so NO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COULD HAVE POSSIBLY HAPPENED!! then I was told I needed to go back home!!
That was from a housing officer when there are clear policies about how to deal with a tenant who is experiencing or has experienced domestic violence!
Oh and dont get me started on rent arrears?! I had a small amount ( less than a weeks rent due to the 5 week wait for Universal Credit ) they phoned me like a loan shark making it sound like I owed them thousands and saying " I'll ring you back in 4 hours to see if you've got the money together!" then amazingly the same bullying housing officer said I had no rent arrears at all! I contacted them again to confirm the amount for the rent arrears and the amount changed no less than 5 times!! It took a year for them to even consider taking my ex's name off the tenancy even though paperwork had been sent off which they have now conveniently ' lost' so we have to do it all again!! I have enouh to worry about right now without being bullied and discriminated against for being in a Refuge!
I put in a complaint with my domestic violence worker about the housing officer in question and all we got back was an email from his ' manager' saying ' oh he's not like that normally'
No really?! So why was he like it to me then?!
Absolutely horrendous avoid at all costs any kind of dealings with this sham of a housing association I cannot wait to leave them behind I will literally have a party to celebrate!!

This housing association is absolutely useless we and other residents have made several complaints nothing gets sorted if you take any complaints higher they just say they agree with the housing officer we are meant to be independent living but we are treated like kids ,we've been hear 13 years used to be lovely but horrible now.

This is the worse House association thay lie lie are very disrespectful . Never do any repairs if repairs After months of waiting get done housing send out cow boys that can’t change a light bulb . Housing left me with no heating from September 2018 till March 2019. All over the winter telling lies every time I called saying we’re waiting for the heaters to come in stock really waiting from September to March what a load of bull . Now same again storage heating brake down in lounge and hall so no heating down stairs at all . Housing sent some cow boy electrician out that said the thermostat in both of them have broken . Yes the one in hall as it’s as old as the house never change it just repair it five times in seven years . ? He took of the fuse cover put new cover on but left it hanging of with live wires hanging out . I called housing to complain about the dum electrician they sent All he said was put a box in front of it so no one can put there fingers in the box what the hell you talk to nursery children and get a better response . Also damp in my lounge for years have to keep clean black mould from cold and old patio doors that have ice on inside in winter . Also my £1.600 sofa bed just three years old from DFS has green and black mould and is wet under neath from the damp the housing told me take it up with DFS or claim on your house insurance . When it’s there fault because not sorting the heating or sorting the damp . Sending little boys Just out of high school to take photos of the damp over and over again and when I call that say we’re send someone to take a look . Basically to take more photos absolute disgrace disgusting housing association . As long as that get there rent that go give a dam about there tenants having to suffer and live like they’re in the 1950s absolutely disgusted with them

This is the worst company ever to deal with. I am in the process of selling my flat and they had proved to be a nightmare to deal with. Every time I call the sales team and go through all the security check and retelling the story to the receptionist, they are either in the meeting or short staffed and they can't find any records in their system. They lost the cheque with the payment for the Management Pack. I was trying to contact them for a week, twice a day to find out when I will receive Management Pack. I had to pay again £260 this time over the phone. 3 days past and I never received promised receipt for the payment so had to call them again. After going through all the security questions with the receptionist and telling her the whole story again! I was told they are all going to the meeting so there was no one in the team to speak and that they are also short staffed. I said I would like to complain, but there was no one to complain to!
This paperwork is delaying progress of the sale. I look forward to never having to deal with them again!

After I posted the below review, they deleted their Facebook page. Great way to show they care about their customers ...
Cannot explain the stress they have put us through for what is meant to be an exciting time of buying our first house. Forced and threatened to exchange without a completion date then as soon as we exchange the house is delayed by 2 months (after originally supposedly being ready back in August). We were promised we'd be in by Christmas then the day before we were meant to complete it is suddenly end of Jan!! No communication, just rudeness.DO NOT BUY FROM THESE JOKES.

Avoid buying a house from these bunch of cowboys , I have had a leaking roof for over 5 years and it's still not fixed as well as no heating for two years, leaks / floods from poor plumbing . The list of faults goes on and on if your thinking about buying a part rent part buy don't bother it will work out more expensive with there bumped up and made up service charges ..Avoid

Catalyst have failed to help the Residents of Chaplin House with many of their ongoing issues - the main one being Rodents. We have a serious problem with Rats and Mice entering our properties.

When we moved into the new build 5 years ago, never would anyone think we would get rodents in our flats. The rodents have even managed to get to the 7th floor - every floor is infested. All because of the shoddy building work and the fact that the building wasn't sealed properly on the ground floor in communal areas. Because of this, which Catalyst should be liable for all residents have experienced issues with these pests. Catalyst to this day have not taken any measures to resolve the matter!!

There are also other on going maintenance issues, which also have not been resolved.

Catalyst Housing Ltd is no competent to be a Housing Association as they fail to maintain the property. What are we paying rent and service charges for??? We should all be reimbursed!!