Sanctuary Reviews 

I should have looked on here before I swapped from a Paradigm home to a Sanctuary one. Almost 10 years and my mental health is so much worse because of the incompetence of this housing association. They all lie to cover themselves. Meanwhile the CEO thinks the best way to support his tenants is to buy up new properties, even more that they can’t maintain. The operatives act like they hate working for them, aren’t skilled and management lie to cover themselves. Reviews here are heartbreaking. I don’t know how they are allowed to continue to treat tenants like this.

I was in excruciating pain and needed an ambulance. Pressed the call button alarm and was answered by the team within a few seconds. Julie was very empathetic,understood how much pain I was in and called an ambulance. Julie then called me back and asked to keep them updated every 20 minutes until the ambulance arrived. Excellent service cannot thank them enough for their assistance and a special thank you to Julie. Many thanks Carl J

I have had involvement with Sanctuary as a factor since 2019 and they are criminally terrible at every aspect of their job. Unresolved repairs have been ongoing for years, despite completing their complaints process for the same issue multiple times. Prolonged waiting times for repairs (6+ months for roof leak issues/water ingress). They do not keep accurate records resulting in repair jobs getting mixed up, forgotten about, or not passed to relevant contractors with sufficient and accurate information. 90% of the staff members I've had the displeasure of speaking to are unhelpful, rude, unsupportive and fail to complete their job in terms of escalating repairs with accurate notes. Communication with Sanctuary is and has always been exceptionally poor, with long hold times on the phone, and lack of response to webform submissions for repairs. The company has no duty of care or respect for the people who pay them (and it is their role to look after). In my 6+ years of dealings with them, they have never met their own written statement of services or the legal code of conduct for factors in Scotland. I would not buy another property if Sanctuary had anything to do with it, nor would I ever recommend anyone to buy a property where Sanctuary are the factors. I'm now having to go down legal routes to try and encourage this horrific company to simply do the job they are being paid for and are legally obliged to do.

I thought I had bad service before...but congratulations to Sanctuary for being the worse organisation I have EVER had to deal with.
Front line staff friendly...but company organisation is non existent!
9 days with a front door that didn't lock
Overcharged...which they admit ... but months later still finding excuses to return my money????
Week 3 without a toilet that flushes... then they send me a questionnaire asking about my mental health... it was fine till I crossed Sanctuarys path.
Don't know how they have above 1 ⭐️average rating

Sanctuary housing association are quick enough to raise rent annually, however I have repairs that have been outstanding on my property since 2021. I have had different companies over this time span come out to measure up and quote but no actual repairs! They are a law unto themselves and they continue to break housing rules and legislations on a regular basis! The new law brought out in October 2025 in regards to mould in properties is ignored by them because it seems they are above the law !!

My 79-year-old grandmother, a stroke victim and Type 1 diabetic, has been left without heating in -5°C temperatures.

Sanctuary's conduct has been shameful.

1. Victim Blaming & Discrimination:
The Housing Officer refused to send an engineer for 3 days and accused my grandmother of "breaking" the heating by "messing with the controls." This is false. She is terrified to touch the controls specifically so she doesn't break them. The system is complex, unreliable, and unfit for a disabled pensioner (a breach of the Equality Act 2010). Blaming a stroke victim for your failing equipment is disgusting.

2. Misleading an MP:
Sanctuary admitted in a Stage 2 letter that the heating is "unreliable" and "inefficient," yet told our MP (Katrina Murray) that it is "functional and adequate" to avoid replacing it.

3. Fuel Poverty:
You have instructed her to use expensive temporary plug-in heaters to cover your repair failure but refused to cover the extra electricity costs. You are forcing a pensioner to choose between heating and debt.

This case is now under investigation by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (Case Ref: 202510003).

6 flights of stairs for single parent of an 8 month old . Can’t do shopping and get pram and baby upstairs without assistance. Had to move in to a dirty , need to paint ( given vouchers to get paint and do it all herself while given 1 week to move in!!! and not given any info on how to work storage heaters, most don’t work. Parking spaces are £50 a year which is ok except that spaces are used by people who don’t live there ,don’t pay and they chain them so no one else can use them. Just another money making company who do not give a damn about locals and just want the money with no effort to provide secure housing for people from Dover. The name “Sanctuary “ is obscene to say the least.

Diabolical housing association, they haven't a clue... down to people on the phone, administrative staff, supervisors, managers, estate teams/management teams, planning team/planning management teams. Who im still waiting for a call back from the last 2 month. Don't do repairs, tell you they cant find your repair on system, or tell you its just been cancelled (when it never got started ) tell you 2 years later your getting a repair done and waiting for quotes for then I phone up again and they say its be cancelled (when was you going to tell me that) for now to apparently not meet requirements, please explain to me how you repair rotten windows without changing the whole window? Had 4 inspectors in the last 2 years because people just like to come to your house to take pictures and not document, all inspectors said the house needs new windows for now I apparently don't meant requirements. Sorry have I got to fall through the rot for you to do something. I called the emergency line on Saturday to be the 1st in the queue for the phone to get put down with no-one answering it, I called 3 times, (an emergency number) and sanctuary didn't pick up the phone, I had to pay for my own electrician to come and get my electric back on, I am discusted on how you work, I basically live in my own house, it's not a council property because you don't do anything, you take rent money and don't do any repairs, as for waiting time on repair is disgusting. You cancelled my stage one complaint with no solution so now I have gone back into a complaints procedure. I have now gone through the ombudsman as you are just purposely going round in circles. Why do you take on more housing associations when you can't deal with what you have anyway. You haven't enough staff/ repairs staff to account for the work but you take on more properties. You are the worst housing association in the UK

It takes a very long time to get an answer on the phone and if you have a full time job it is practically impossible to report a repair as the lines closes at 5. I managed to make an appointment after quite may atemps but despite given then the boiler code error so they would have an idea of the problem, the engineer who attended my address did not know what he was coming for. After he checked the boiler he said that he would talk to his manager to order the part. He assured me that this doesn't take long and the boiler would be fixed soon and I would get an appointment shortly, so far nobody has returned to repair it , very frustrating.

What went wrong…. what didn’t go wrong? Me and my friend lived there as 2 young girls and honestly this was the worst experience of our lives! From the damp, mouldy walls to the cannabis smell in the corridor. imagine having to wake up and smell cannabis first thing in the morning. It was awful, we had to terminate our contract earlier as the conditions we were living in were unbearable . our washing machine was mouldy and we were told it was replaced 1 year before our arrival which was obviously a lie… the dryer didn’t even work. The worst part about this was that when we wanted to terminate our contract, we were told we had to wait until the landlord finds somewhere new, i mean who does that? Many items had been damaged and i’ve still not even received compensation. Do not live here , it’s the worst place ever.

I have reported a bike shed issue in September as the lock on the bike shed was not working and I could not access my bike. I use my bike to go to work. It is nearly four months now and it is not mended or the lock is not changed. My bike is still locked inside. They gave me a date for repair and I waited for someone to mend it. No one turned up. Now, they emailed me to say that it will be repaired next year.
I never seen such a poor response and lack of service attitude from any other company. It is one of the worst companies and they should not be in this business.

Have reported one repair on several occasions using their online contact repair form.As of yet nothing.No reply back via email,phone,post.
Is Sanctuary Housing still continuing to use these online repair forms for their tenants to use.If not please let their tenants know.

Dont get involved with this housing association, they dont give a stuff about people just there money grabbing profit. They dont care!!and if got a problem with your neighbour's forget it as they are a waste of time and its not there problem. They will sell houses to drug dealers tho ,they are welcome in there eyes!(CASH) So yes bring your children up in these association streets an have them become there next dealers .

Very pleased with the result of the repair. The guy had a great personality explained everything he was doing. So recommend his work. Thankyou Sanctuary

28 days for someone to come out to a radiator with a hole in, then now they don't know when it will be replaced when it was obvious when I reported it i needed a new one

It took 14 years for Sanctuary to do this repair, however the workman who arrived was excellent he went back and reported what he found and then he was back within a week repair done excellent workman excellent work.

The 12 days of a Sanctuary Christmas:
12 workers skiving
11 flying pigeons
10 guttering leaks
9 Housing Ombudsman complaints
8 staff are off sick
7 ignored emails
6 bird spikes are falling
5 ignored emails
4 seagulls squawking
3 fence panels rotting
2 vulnerable residents
and a Sanctuary house in disrepair

I’ve had no hot water or heating for about two weeks they finally fix it now I’ve got a leak so I’ve had to switch of the main water line I have no water for me and my 7 year old son for 3 days because I need to call them back on Monday and they said it’s not guaranteed they will come out on Monday and fix it. they said switch on when needed water is used about every 10-15 minutes bearing in mind I spoke to Thames water and Thames water said they need to come and fix it incase of a leak they even gave me a reference number to give to my housing but sanctuary said they won’t be calling Thames waters

I dont know how this company has a contract to work for supported housing? Totally unprofessional and quite frankly liars

Haven’t had a working shower in weeks. I have 2 young children and sanctuary have said I should just drip wash from the sink as I do not have bath tub. They tell me not having a working shower is not important and they will get to me when they get to me. In this cold weather my 3 year and old and 6 year old must be cold drip washing from a sink. Absolutely disgusting.