Origin Housing Reviews 67

I would give a zero if I could. Some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced from the Home
Ownership team. We are waiting for approval from Origin so that we can complete our remortgage and have been waiting for this since the end of December. We have paid a fee for them to be able to process this too. I have not stopped emailing/calling them but no one is replying or calling us back. This has been over a month now, absolutely appalling and led me to complain as a last resort.

With respect to the employees and management of the Origin Housing :
Please change your company's culture.
Your residents are disappointed, furious and mistreated.

They provide very poor state properties and never,EVER reply to urgent enquiries. Staff are rude and ignorant.
Communal door is broken (providing free access to anyone) for more than 6months. Reports were made about it million times.Even police left notes about major safety issue in the area, stabbings, drug dealing... Origin still ignores this issue. I would avoid renting from them and especially buying.

If I could give zero I would. Avoid purchasing in any new build block they have a hand in. They will not maintain the property.

Never experienced such poor customer service in my life! I put in an application for a studio flat in WGC 6 weeks ago and was told i would hear back in 7 - 10 days...i literally put my life on hold for 3 weeks waiting for a response, worried about my living situation. I called multiple times, was told if i emailed they would reply by close of business. Emailed well over 5 or 6 times and just got completey ignored! They couldnt even be bothered to fob me off! Ive worked in customer service for 15 years and i never once ignored a customer. These people dont see a human with feelings at the end of their phone, its disgusting

Terrible. Moved into a new build / private block of flats and within a short period the building has become at times unsafe and badly maintained (eg bins not brought out for 3 weeks, faulty lifts, faulty doors/security, stolen parcels). What makes the issues disappointing is the lack of communication and update on problems and fixes. It seems like they have no one working on the end of their email address. Extremely poor service. Would avoid a building they managed in the future.

Harrow One was badly designed by The Hill Group as the developer and has been managed terribly by Origin Housing as the property management company.

We can easily find examples of bad design and poor customer service. We keep complaining about it to Hill and Origin Housing but it took 3 weeks for a formal email reply from Hill Director Calum Kidd and none from Origin Housing. That is totally unacceptable! What we want is the actions/follow-up instead of keep waiting to arrange a meeting or call to find an excuse. We are charged monthly more than a thousand pounds for nothing!

Below are some existing issues that we have raised a long time ago and I suggest you not buy any of Hill's development for the value of money!

1) Cracks an dents in walls: the ground floor walls have been dented and damaged. While I appreciate some of this is wear and tear, some is damage from building work done. This includes damage around the lift panel on the ground floor. We have raised this multiple times, including in my previous email and the Hill decorator on site but it is yet to be addressed

2) Broken magloc: the newly installed magloc broke within days of it being installed. One of our main points of entry is unsecure at the moment and given the persistent issues with security at the building, it is paramount that is fixed ASAP.

3) Lack of CCTV: we have consistently raised security concerns with Hill and Origin for many months now. We have flagged incidents and called the police multiple times. However, our pleas for additional CCTV cameras have not been addressed yet.

4) Front door: the front door still does not shut automatically many times. This means it is not a secure front door. You have previously mentioned it is due to the design of the building that the air pressure prevents it. We are concerned that due to the poor design of this building, the residents and their property are unsafe.

5) Chipped paint on communal doors: The paint used on the communal doors is not appropriate as it is easily chipped and makes the development look extremely shabby. We appreciate that Hill recently repainted these but the paint used is not durable enough for such a highly trafficked area and is chipped considerably already.

6) Lack of synchronisation of lifts: The lifts have, for a long time now, lost their synchronisation. This means that residents need to operate each lift individually, which very inefficient and shabby. – I managed to contact the MD of Kone (the lift installer) who has arranged for engineers to attend site this afternoon. I will update after they have attended however we hope this issue will be resolved today.

7) Perpetually out of service bike lift: we have a bike lift in the development which has been out of service since the first day and was never fixed. We have raised this multiple times and it has never been addressed.

8) Stench from Bin room: as you enter the development, there is a strong stench from the Bin room. We appreciate that Hill has added a room fresher to mask the smell but it is not enough to cover up the strong stench.

9) Large stains in communal areas: there are large stains in the communal areas which are not being cleaned. We would like to know when these will be cleaned and how often as they are currently extremely unsightly

If I could give 0 stars or actually -10 is more like it, I also would. Origin are an absolute joke but, not funny. All they do is collect the rent and build new flats to sell. They NEVER maintain anything and then it just collapses, then you wait years, then you end up having to sue them. FLOOD THEM WITH OFFICIAL COMPLAINTS to bring their stats down. Also, no one will buy from them if their ratings are low. Go on every site you can and leave a negative review. Who the hell do these jumped up housing officer think they are? They are not the police or the government, they are a limited company focused on profit and have A NON EXISTANT CUSTOMER SERVICE. We get letters saying no barbeques, no washing lines, no gatherings in the communal garden. WHAT'S THE GARDEN FOR THEN? These housing officers try to make us live like we are in a gestapo prison ffs. They also have a CEO and higher ups that are too weak to do anything about the staff that have a God complex and think they hold the keys to your tenancy as power. These people need sacking immediately. Also, look out for who gets moved, work done, etc. It is always the same type of people "friends" of the staff. Look at how many staff are now doing their own thing and charging Origin for it. We pay for that on our services. Bunch of fraudsters, liars, cheaters and law breakers.

I’ve been with origin housing for over 16 year, I hardly ever call for a repair to be done but when it came to my front door handle falling off I called and ask for something to be done! Whilst at work one day I had call on my mobile (contractor for origin) he ask me if it was the main door to the flats in Blake close Royston. I told him that it was my personal front door that wasn’t in the flats, I live in a house, I told him I was at work and had no notice of him coming out and couldn’t just leave work. He said he would report back to origin and they will be in touch to make an appointment!! Heard nothing from origin housing and handle still broke 3 months later 😕 I give up, I’ll buy a new handle and do it myself otherwise I’ll still be waiting in 2 years time as I’m still waiting for a light in my kitchen, been using a torch for over 2 years now. “If I fall into rent arrears I get no end of attention”…..

I would give 0 stars if I could. By far the worst housing I’ve ever dealt with. 8 months pregnant living with a partner who suffers health issues as well as mental health. We’ve had crazy leaks coming through the ceiling in the front room and kitchen. All power cut out. I could swim in my front room. My new TV, sofa and flooring were all damaged. It took them a month to come to us. Lots and lots of phone calls, emails and stress. Something we shouldn’t have to do. When the electrician and plumber came, they were both shocked and said these aren’t living conditions. That’s one of the many problems, let’s not mention the fact we had no hot water for the first month we moved in, or the dusty old heaters who affect my partner’s asthma. It’s a joke, definitely wouldn’t live here again, or deal with origin ever again.

No one seem to take any recposbelty or communicate between themselves nighter respond or get back to an answer or a repair!!!!

I've been trying to get ahold of the sales team for a week, both by phone and by email, but never heard back neither was I able to speak to someone from the sales department. The customer service team I was able contact said they would pass my details to the sales team so they can contat me later. But I never heard back. Disgraceful.

The worst social housing company in the UK by far. They really could not care less about you or your housing problems and all they like to do is charge you service charges and give you nothing in return. This housing organization is a complete joke and if you ever have any problems then you can expect the worst possible service. I would give them 0 stars if I could.

They seem to like failing to give out parking permits with daft excuses and telling people 'they hope you don't get a ticket' whilst you hear their spurious excuses.
But they did get back to my GF on some issues. They did fix the door to the bins after a lady became trapped in there with a stenching bin